


HUNGER

by Vwoop



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Contains some graphic gore scenes, Gen, I made this in my lust for Titan eren content, No this fic is not romantic in any way, Shameless Titan Eren, This is my first fic lol, Titan Eren’s a huge dork in this, Wholesome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:08:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 58,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27865878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vwoop/pseuds/Vwoop
Summary: Eren Yeager, a noble and hot-headed cadet of the 104th cadet corps, goes missing during year 2 of cadet training. Both the military police and the cadets are unable to find him, and so they give up the search. But when a mysterious abnormal Titan that eats other Titans appears during the battle of Trost, Mikasa and Armin notice a strange resemblance to the missing cadet.
Comments: 40
Kudos: 142





	1. That Night

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first ever time writing a fanfiction! I’m more of a roleplayer myself, but I figured I’d give fanfiction a try! Thank you for reading this, it means a lot to me.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren Yeager’s night is going as usual, haunted by the night terrors that are caused by his mother’s death. But Eren’s night is about to take a turn for the worst when he comes face-to-face with a familiar face from his past.

Soft quiet breaths resonate throughout the quiet barracks. There is not a sound. Not the skittering of a rat on the floor, or even the slightest hint of a voice. All is quiet. In truth, it would seem that this is one of the only times of day where this building is so peaceful. Every day, the yelling and antics of the 104th cadet corps keep the barracks in a lively state almost 24/7. The only time that there is not a sound to be heard is the night, where all of the cadets lay in their slumber. Some dream of pleasant things, like the luxury of a warm bed, or perhaps dream of ambitions of living in luxury in the interior as a member of the military police, not having to worry about a Titan ever again, while getting fat off of good quality food. Although for some, a good nights sleep is a luxury, as they are plagued with memories too stubborn to disappear. About that one fateful day. That one fateful day where everything changed.

This was true for one specific young cadet. His name was Eren Jaeger, a young and ambitious boy with a single goal; to eliminate all of the Titans. After that fateful day in the Shigashina district, where the Colossal Titan broke the wall, letting in all the Titans, Eren has been frequently plagued by night terrors of all kinds. Whether it be about the Titans eating his mother, to seeing all of the destruction caused by their wake, as well as seeing the colossal Titan itself in these nightmares. Every night they would plague him, and it never seemed to get better. He never got used to them. Occasionally he would wake up in the morning with tears streaming down his face. The other cadets would laugh at him, but he always managed to brush it off. They didn't understand. They would never understand until they went though the same thing he did. Until they saw the horrific ways the Titans eat people. Armin and Mikasa were the only ones who understood him. They were with him. They were there on that day. Currently, a young Eren Jaeger was shaking in his bed, plagued by the nightmares that he often faced, wanting desperately for the nightmares to stop, but unable to wake himself up from his slumber.

The sudden feeling of a touch to his hand caused his nightmares to go into overdrive. He was unable to wake up, but it would seem that the touch of another was causing his nightmares to get worse. He was imagining things such as himself getting eaten. Or him attempting to pull his mother out of that heap of trash that was once his house, to no avail. He wondered what he could have done differently in that moment. How he could've saved his mother from certain death. But unfortunately, as much as he wanted to admit that he could've saved her, the crushing reality was that there was nothing he could have done to stop it. All his attempts were futile. However, his nightmares were soon halted by the breathing through his mouth being restricted. His eyes opened up wide, and he soon noticed that there was a gag around his mouth. He was being gagged! As he struggled in place to remove it, he soon felt himself be picked up by a larger male. Were the other cadets playing a prank on him? Was Reiner in cahoots with Connie or Sasha?? No, Reiner was not the one to do such a thing. Or at least, he assumed so. He has known Reiner for years and never once had he behaved in such a way.

As he looked upwards, sweat dripping down his forehead as he thrashed in place, his muffled screams and yells of anger coming out as he attempted to fight against his 'captor'. His face went pale and his green eyes widened as he saw the face of his captor. That brown hair. Those glasses. That facial hair. Those eyes. It was all clear who his 'kidnapper' was. It was his father, Grisha Jaeger. As much as Eren wanted to continue fighting, Eren was completely and utterly dumbfounded at the sight of his father. It had been years. It had been 4 YEARS since his mother died, and NOW he decides to finally show up? His happiness that he should feel by seeing his father after so long was completely overtaken by the rage he felt. His father didn't bother to even visit him. He didn't bother to help him and Armin after they were left to fend for themselves after the death of Armin's Grandfather. The real question, though, is why the hell was he here? More accurately, why was he gagging him and attempting to kidnap him out of the barracks?

As Eren started to yell, Grisha removed the gag from his son's mouth, as he started to walk into the forest, still holding Eren bridal style.

"Shush, Eren. Don't draw attention to us. You risk us both getting caught." Grisha stated softly, his voice sounding weak and hoarse as he put a finger to Eren's mouth. Eren could not believe what he was seeing! His father was kidnapping him out of the cadet corps, and was saying that they were going to get caught by someone?! Who was he talking about?! It was his fault that he was kidnapping him! Eren bit down on his father's finger harshly in retaliation. It did not draw blood, but it caused Grisha to harshly put a hand over Eren's mouth.

"Quiet! I said Quiet!" He whisper-yelled to Eren, harshly gripping his face and the sides of his mouth as he covered Eren's mouth. Eren was more than infuriated, he was steaming. He tried to yell again, but it would seem that his father wasn't allowing more attention to be draw to them both, and he quickly squished Eren's cheeks in a harsh way. He wasn't going to allow his son to cause both of them to be in mortal danger, for even though Eren did not know why they were here, Grisha was fully aware, and he was going to make sure that this was not ruined.

As they reached their destination, Grisha dropped Eren onto the ground, shaking the saliva off his hand from the saliva that putting his hand over Eren's mouth caused.

"Dad?! Why the hell have you come here, after 4 years!? What are we-" he started yelling before promptly shut up by Grisha with a loud 'shush' sound.

"Quiet, Eren! I need you to listen closely. Give me your arm." Grisha stated, before grabbing a strange box out of the bag on his hip. Eren watched in a strange sense of curiosity as he stared at the box. What was inside? Why did he have a box, and what was he planning to do with his arm? A stab of panic went throughout his body as he moved his arm near his chest. He was not going to allow his father to do whatever he wanted to do to his arm. He has just reunited with him, and now he wants him to hold his arm out?! No way, this was way too suspicious, at least in Eren's eyes.

"Dad? What are you doing?! Get the hell away from me!" He yelled, before watching as his father started to reach for his arm. What was he doing?! He watched as his father took out a syringe from the box he was holding. Instantly, Eren's panic went into complete meltdown mode. He was going to fight his father if he wanted to inject that strange syringe into him.

"For heaven's sake, Eren! Give me your arm!" Grisha exclaimed before forcefully grabbing Eren's arm. He started to put Eren's arm into place and put the syringe in a ready position. "Listen to me closely, Eren! If you want to save Mikasa, Armin and the others, you need this! Let me give it to you!" He yelled. Suddenly, two large figures appeared behind Grisha, and with one fell swoop, Grisha was unconscious, and one of the figures was holding the syringe.

"So this is where he was hiding, damn devil." One of the figures sneered out. It was clearly a male voice, but it was unrecognizable. He didn't know who this was. Nor did he have any time to think. Eren started to attempt to crawl away, his breathing unsteady from the shock of what had just happened. But before he could gain any major distance, Eren felt a large object slam into his head, and he fell onto the grass, his eyes starting to flutter shut. The last words he heard were "The bastard had a son?"


	2. The Syringe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grisha Yeager struggles to deal with the consequences of his actions in the past, as him and his son are put into the worst possible situation by the two mysterious kidnappers. Grisha’s fear overwhelms his ability to speak or think rationally as he is faced with his worst fear; the past he left behind.

Darkness. That's all that Eren Jaeger could see. His green eyes slowly fluttering open, but there was nothing but darkness. His breathing was limited. Why could he not see anything? Why was he not in his bed? Was this a new drill devised by the Sergeant? Wait... no, Eren felt like he was forgetting something. Why did he feel like he was forgetting something? It felt like the thing he was forgetting was important. Eren struggled to take a few breaths as he felt a throbbing, increasingly intense pain in his head. Was he hit by something? Was this a headache that just happened to be a bit worse than usual? No, it felt worse than a headache. The feeling of something wet dribbling down his forehead caused Eren to attempt to move his hands to see what the thing was that was going down his face. However he soon realized something gravely wrong. His hands were bound. He was attempting to move them, but they were bound together by rope.

Memories soon flashed into his head. His father. The syringe. Being carried out into the dark forest. The two men- wait! The two men!! He now remembers the events of what he believed was last night. Although in reality, Eren was completely unaware that it had only been a couple of hours since that incident occurred. The fact that he couldn't see anything, and that his hands were bound, led Eren to believe that his head was being covered by some kind of bag or sack. That would explain his difficulty breathing. He was going to try and fight back or feel around, to try and see exactly where he was, but Eren didn't have enough time to do so, before he heard one of the voices of the two men speak out.

"Hey! The small one's awake!" The voice spoke out. It was most likely the larger of the two men. Since Eren remembers that the larger one had a more gravelly voice. The throbbing pain in his head was slightly affecting his memory however, so he wasn't entirely sure.

A harsh grab of the bag on his head caused Eren to somewhat worry. Although Eren was already worried. After all, two men just kidnapped him, and presumably his father too! What cowards, devoting their strength to causing crime rather than devoting it to helping humanity win against the threat that kept them all in cages. They were like cattle ripe for the slaughter, just biding their time until the Titans decided to break the wall once again. He was sure of it; the Colossal and Armored Titans would return one day, and they'd bring down humanity with them. But Eren wasn't going to let that happen! He would kill all the Titans, including those two bastards.

Suddenly, the bag on Eren's head was lifted, and he instantly felt the cold of the strong winds on his face. When the morning light reached his eyes, they widened to the size of baseballs when he saw where he was. He was on top of the wall. This couldn't be Wall Maria, could it? No, he doubted that if the Survey Corps couldn't make it, that these two could. It would seem that his observations were proved correct when he noticed the sight of destroyed and dilapidated houses. This must be Wall Rose, right?

Eren suddenly started struggling in the grip of the older man, starting to yell at them.

"Let me go, you cowardly scu-!!!" Eren's yelling was soon interrupted by a swift kick to the stomach, causing a groan to come out of Eren's throat. He started to curl up from the blow, his back now bent up as he tried to recover from the kick. Blood dripped down from his forehead and on to the surface of the wall, seemingly from his earlier wound when he got knocked out. Well, now he knew what that wet feeling was on his face.

"Shut it!" The man with the gravelly voice yelled after kicking him. Eren looked over to the two men. He didn't recognize either of them, and his vision was too hazy from the wound he had to the head to really be able to focus on any of their features. Eren breathed heavily, his eyes half-lidded as he started to feel tired. He just wanted to rest. One of the men motioned something to the other, and the other took the bag off of his father's head, who was seemingly still knocked out. The wound on his head looked bad, but for some reason, there was a strange smoke coming from the wound... it reminded him of how the Titans healed. Wait a moment, why would there be smoke coming from the wound? Perhaps he was just too tired. Maybe he was seeing things.

"Wake him up." The man with the gravelly voice stated as he continued to hold Eren in place. The other male swiftly drove a quick kick into his father's stomach, which caused Grisha to wake up with a jolt, blood coming out of his mouth. Was he more injured than Eren thought he was? Grisha seemed to react better to the kick than Eren did, taking only a moment to recover before his head looked over to Eren's direction. His face was one of complete and utter desolation and fear as he looked at his son. Glasses broken and face covered with blood.

"Dad, what's going on?! Why are these men after you?!" Eren asked in slight fear and panic, looking for some kind of consolation or answer from his father, but all he got in return was the fearful look from his father. No words could escape Grisha's mouth. He was too scared. Too cowardly.

"I said shut it!!" The gravelly voiced man yelled out, grabbing Eren's jaw and forcing it shut. A muffled whimper came from Eren as he was forced to stay in this position on his knees. The other male, the one with the box with the syringe in it, started to speak to Grisha.

"You were an awful hard man to find, Grisha Jaeger. You caused me and my subordinate here a lot of trouble. Not to mention, the entire country. Do you have anything to say for yourself before we send you off to your people's hell?" He sneered as he grabbed Grisha's face with one hand, and got the syringe out of the box with the other. Grisha's face was still contorted in horror as he stared at the man in front of him. Eren looked at his father in panic and fear, and Grisha returned the look with somehow an even more intense fear. As Grisha looked towards his son, the man holding his face looked at Eren. A sinister, almost inhumanly large smile went across his face as he let go of Grisha's face.

"You know, I have a better idea." He chuckled out before walking over to the large man that was holding Eren, seemingly his subordinate. He handed the man the syringe, and without saying a word, he seemed to understand what he wanted. Grisha looked on with an increasing horror as he realized what was going on as well. Eren was seemingly unable to grasp what the situation meant, until it was already too late.

In an instant, the gravelly voiced man stuck the syringe into Eren's neck. A horrific shriek of surprise and pain alike came out of Eren as he struggled in place, attempting to get away from the male. But it was all to no avail. The liquid inside the syringe was injected into Eren, and suddenly a wave of heat fell over Eren. It... felt like he was burning up with a fever. His body was getting so hot. It was an instantaneous reaction, and the man holding Eren still seemed to keep holding him.

"Do you want us all to die?! Drop the boy, you moron!" The taller and slimmer man yelled. Before being dropped, Eren exchanged glances with his father, looking right at him with half-lidded, tired eyes as he started to speak.

"Dad...." he started, but he was unable to speak any more, as Eren was dropped off the side of wall Maria. He was unable to scream for help. He was unable to make a sound at all, his eyes closed as the heat reached an overwhelming sensation over his entire body. He didn't want to fight anymore. He just wanted to rest. Maybe he could talk to Mikasa in the morning. As his mind started to close, he thought of Armin and Mikasa. What were they doing? Probably still sleeping... and as his mind drew to a blank, a deafening light came out from his body as all thoughts stopped. What was left was a large, muscular, 15 meter Titan, having transformed in mid air, fell onto the ground with a loud 'BAM' that shook the ground.

"EREN!!!!!" Screamed Grisha as he shuffled to the edge of the wall, looking down at what remained of his son from atop the wall. It felt like the entire world was crashing down upon him. He soon felt the grip of the slim man on his shoulders, the man bending down to Grisha's level and getting close to his face.

"Your son has shown his true form, like all of you Devils. He's simply returning back to the way that he always was inside." He stated in a condescending way, almost mocking Grisha as he put his hands on Grisha's shoulders, leaning towards Grisha as he started to whisper in his ear. The man's voice was soft, but almost in a sinister way.

"Wouldn't you like to join him?" He whispered, a smile ear-to-ear as he suddenly pushed Grisha off of the wall, a loud and sinister laugh coming from the man as he yelled at Grisha as he fell.

"Like father like son!" He laughed out. As Grisha fell down, he reflected upon everything in his life. He reflected about his previous life in Marley. His wife. His failure to find his son until now. His failure to pass on his destiny to Eren. But most importantly...

He thought about Eren.


	3. Day of Mourning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A switch of perspective brings the story to Mikasa and Armin, exactly one year after Eren’s disappearance. It’s cadet graduation day, but Mikasa and Armin don’t feel like celebrating. Their closed-off and strange actions bring suspicions to one specific cadet; Jean Kirstein, and he brings it upon himself to investigate.

The sounds of celebration in the air permeated all throughout the dining hall of the 104th cadet corps. Cadets celebrating and cheering. For what, exactly? Well, today was a momentous occasion for many of them. It was graduation day. The day where the members of the 104th were finally done with their military training. For many, it was a feeling of excitement. A feeling of happiness that the days of harsh military training were over. That they could finally become full soldiers. Either taking the fight directly to the Titans by joining the scout regiment, and almost certainly dying a horrible death. Or, joining the garrison regiment, providing support to the walls and making sure that they were not breached. However, for a select 10 members of the 104th, the life of luxury behind the walls as members of the military police were possible. However, only the top 10 cadets of the 104th could even reach this dream. For all of the others, it was either fortifying the walls with the garrison regiment, or facing certain death for the good of humanity in the scout regiment. For many, this was an easy choice. Join the garrison regiment, as no one wants to die when it could all be for nothing.

In the corner of the dining hall, there was one table that was not as lively as the rest. No. At this table, there seemed to be not a sound. It was a small table, only suited for about 4 people. In this room, it was almost an unspoken rule that no one but two specific people could sit at that table. Most of the cadets didn't really know the reason, and most didn't bother to care, as long as the two who sat at that table didn't bother the rest of them, most of them were content with letting them have their space. At this table was a very specific cadet. A young, scrawny looking boy named Armin Arlert. Unlike the rest of the dining hall, his face was not lit up with joy. In fact, he seemed more worried than anything. A shoulder-length blonde haircut complimenting his royal blue eyes. But these eyes had changed. What once was a mild-mannered, intelligent young man was now a closed-off shell of who he used to be. Only a select few really knew why, and the people who didn't know did not question it. They had just assumed this is how he always was. Sitting at the table alone, in the right corner of the bench-chair that they all sat on, Armin did not touch his food whatsoever. He was nervously glancing to the side every now and again, looking outside the window, as if he was waiting for someone. After staring for about 30 seconds, he would look back down at his plate of food. A somber expression on his face as he stared at it.

Suddenly, after one of the periods where Armin was looking out the window, he suddenly stood up, causing some of the cadets to stop what they were doing and look at him. He looked down at his plate and grabbed a piece of bread, but left his tray with the soup on the table. Armin didn't say a word, and started to walk down the aisles of tables, eventually reaching the door and quickly closing it behind him as he went through it. Most of the cadets simply went back to what they were doing. Some even gossiping about how 'That Armin kid gets weirder every day'. Or about how 'Not even bothering to finish the food that was freely given to him. How ungrateful.' The soup that was left on the table was quickly snatched by another cadet named Sasha Braus, who gobbled it up in a matter of seconds. But no one else seemed to care, as it was usual seeing her like that. However, one specific cadet named Jean Kirstein seemed to be more than intrigued about that little show that Armin just brought to himself. Jean was one of the few people who knew Armin and the others on a first-name basis. He always saw Armin as a bit of a creep, but those actions made him suspicious. He wondered what Armin was up to, leaving his table like that. Even though Armin had gotten more closed off over the past year, he always finished his meal. What could be so important that he skipped his meal? What did he see out there, or what was he planning to do? Jean couldn't settle his curiosity on that part, and decided that he would follow him. Giving his piece of bread to the person beside him, who's name was Marco Bodt, one of the only people he considered somewhat of a 'friend', he told Marco one, simple instruction.

"Hey, watch my food and make sure potato girl over there doesn't take it. I'm going to see what Armin's up to." He stated as he handed his food to Marco. Without even waiting for a response from Marco, Jean got up and walked the same path Armin did, closing the door behind him as he left.

Armin, meanwhile, had started to search around the barracks for the figure he saw. He wondered if it was who he thought it was. Or, possibly, if it was his dear friend that he had lost. It felt like just yesterday when he woke up and Eren was gone. He had tried to convince the Sergeant day and night to let him and Mikasa go look for him, if only for a day. Surprisingly, he actually managed to convince the Sergeant to let them go look for one day and one day only. At the cost of their meals for the next two days, that is. But to Armin, even if it was only for a day, the sacrifice was worth it if they could find Eren. Unfortunately, that day ended with a complete and utter failure. There was not one trace of him left. That day, Armin felt a desolation that he had never known before. Eren seemed to be truly gone. No one had even seen where he went. He always wondered if Mikasa felt the same feeling he did that day. Mikasa was always good at hiding feelings behind a mask, but deep down Armin knew that Mikasa cared more for Eren than anything else. But even then, he wondered if Mikasa still held on to hope that Eren was alive. As for Armin, he was always more of a dreamer, but at this point, even Armin had to admit that there was no chance that Eren was alive. He wasn't the kind of person to run away, especially not from a thing that was so important to him. As Armin entered the male barracks, he noticed a figure in the shadows. He wondered that if, just maybe, it was his lost friend, finally returning to them. But as he got closer, his theory was proven incorrect.

"Mikasa." Armin stated softly, looking at his black-haired friend. Her face held a surprising amount of emotion in it. What was she doing here? Why was she so sad-looking? Did she discover something about Eren? No, she couldn't have. If she did, she would've told him.

"What are you doing in here? If you don't go to the dining hall now, there's going to be no food left. You can't graduate on an empty stomach." He stated in a concerned way. As he got closer to her, he noticed that she was holding something in her hand. What was it? As Armin got a closer look, she noticed it was a bouquet of flowers. Why was she holding flowers? Were they for someone? Was she trying to confess love to someone, and she got embarrassed? The thought was laughable at best. Mikasa wasn't the emotional type. As Armin noticed his surroundings, he suddenly realized where he was. Right there was Eren's bed. Still the same way that it had been when Eren left. Per the military police's request, they didn't want anyone tampering with the crime scene in case Eren got kidnapped. Eren's boots were still by the bed, dusty and untouched since the day that he left.

"Oh, I had almost forgot..." he stated solemnly, looking down at the bed as a sadness started to burn in his chest. Tears threatened to spill at memory of his friend. Today was the one year anniversary of Eren's disappearance. How could he have forgotten such a day? It had almost slipped his mind, but seeing Eren's bedside caused the memories to come back. Oh how he missed his friend so much. Eren was the reason him and Mikasa even joined the military, but now that he was gone, what use was there in joining? He supposed that they both stuck around because that's what Eren would have wanted them to do. He wouldn't have wanted them to give up. He had to stay strong, for Eren's sake. The darkness in the room felt much more intense as him and Mikasa stood at the bedside of Eren in a silent memorial. Armin struggling to hold back tears while Mikasa stared at the bedside, much more sadness in her eyes than Armin would have ever thought possible.

Jean had followed Armin silently into the barracks, he hid behind a bed frame as he peaked behind the frame, watching them silently from the shadows. Who was that figure at the end of the room? Who was Armin meeting with at this hour? Wait... is it possible? No, it couldn't be. What girl would want Armin as a boyfriend? But, then again, he never knew the tastes of girls these days, perhaps one of the girls in the cadet corps liked small, scrawny blondes. What weird tastes. The fact that the figure at the end of the hallway was holding a bouquet of flowers just made this theory stronger in his mind. Despite being across the barracks, Jean could hear their conversation perfectly. The revelation that the figure at the end of the barracks was Mikasa caused a jealous rage to build up in his chest. Armin and Mikasa were dating?! Although he had stopped saying it outwardly, Jean still had feelings for Mikasa, so the sight of Armin being here with her made his blood boil. No, no, think Jean, perhaps this is just a big misunderstanding. Jean decided that he'd attempt to break up the situation with pretending that he didn't see them both in here. Coming out from behind the bed frame, Jean casually walked up to the two, trying to hide the jealousy he felt behind his facade.

"What are you two doing in here alone? Today's graduation day! We won't have to deal with the sergeant anymore! Today's supposed to be a day of celebration." He stated casually, before noticing the somber expressions of the two.

"No." Mikasa stated, her voice soft like usual, but with a hint of sadness in it. "Today is a day of mourning." She muttered out softly, before placing the bouquet of flowers onto Eren's bedsheets, Armin soon following, placing the piece of bread he had got from the dining hall on Eren's bed. Jean didn't say another word, but he looked down at the bedsheets, and the realization hit him. He was dead silent. The three stood around the bed of the one they had lost, in a memorial of silence.


	4. Reawakened Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s finally the day where Armin and Mikasa can finally enter the scout regiment and carry on Eren’s legacy for him. But before they can join a regiment, they are tasked with chores to do. Things take a turn for the worse when a familiar face from 5 years ago makes an appearance.

Today was the day that the faithful cadets of the 104th cadet corps would finally get to decide what regiment that they would go into. It was an exciting and nerve wracking day for every one of them. After all, graduation day was just yesterday, and at that time, the top 10 of the class were decided. All of whom used to be mutuals of Eren Jaegers. Armin Arlert, Krista Lenz, Sasha Braus, Connie Springer, Marco Bodt, Jean Kirstein, Annie Leonhart, Bertholdt Hoover, Reiner Braun, and finally, at the top of the class, Mikasa Ackermann. It was natural that Mikasa was at the top, after all, she was the best cadet that they had seen in at least 20 years. Although, something seemed... different about her. Ever since Eren had disappeared. Mikasa's performance in tests and drills had dropped significantly, to the point where she was only barely above Reiner in performance. Something about Eren's disappearance affected her so much that she could no longer care about the military. It was as if everything she did up until that point was only for Eren's sake, and now that he was gone, it was like she didn't know what she was fighting for anymore. As if she was just a husk, barely doing the drills, only entering the military because it was what Eren wanted. Armin was the same. He had really only kept up in the military because Eren would've wanted him to keep at it. He wouldn't have wanted them to give up.

The cadets were all currently tasked with miscellaneous things to do around the city of Trost while they waited for the regiment assignment today at night. It was somewhat of a frustration for many cadets, after all, many of them just got out of the cadet corps's rigorous training program, and now they were assigned with what were essentially chores. Of course, they had to do them. After all, it was only one day, right? This is what Armin Arlert thought. Currently, he was assigned with Mikasa to clean out the cannons on top of the Trost wall. This was the furthest city in the walls. It was strange being out here. He had seen nothing but the cadet camp for the past 3 years, and now here he was, on top of Wall Rose. It made him think back to the promise he made to Eren. That he would see the world. He promised Eren that they would see the ocean; together. He wanted to apologize that he couldn't hold up his end of the bargain. Armin didn't see that it was Eren's fault that he disappeared. He knew that Eren would never abandon his dreams willingly. Someone or something kidnapped him. They took him away from the cadet camps while everyone was asleep. They must have taken him to a secluded area and either killed him, or managed to hide him. The underground city was a likely subject to where Eren may be. Perhaps they are keeping him captive down there. But what would people have to get out of Eren? He wasn't an important person in the grand scheme of things, so why was he the one chosen? Rather than someone weaker, like himself, who couldn't fight back? No, there had to be some kind of reason why Eren in particular was chosen. Perhaps when he gets inducted as a soldier, he can have the ability to investigate the situation. Perhaps even then; he could find his lost friend.

Turning over to Mikasa, Armin's clothes were somewhat covered in gunpowder residue from having to clean out the cannons.

"It looks like we're finally here, huh Mikasa? We're finally members of the military, just like Eren would have wanted." Armin said, a small smile on his face. He really wasn't happy at all. He was just trying to cheer up Mikasa from yesterday. She still seemed to be depressed, even if she didn't show it outwardly, he knew that her mind was a whirlwind of emotions.

"Yeah. We are." She stated, her voice as monotone as usual, but it seemed like she still wasn't happy. There was just something missing in Mikasa while Eren was gone. It felt like a piece of her soul was just gone. Eren had saved her long ago when she was just a child, and she didn't even know him. Mikasa felt as if she wasn't holding up her end of the promise. No, she felt as if she'd broke it. She wasn't strong enough to save Eren from being kidnapped like he was, as she agreed with Armin on his hypothesis; that the military police's explanation wasn't correct. He didn't run away. Someone kidnapped him out of that bed. They stole him away. Whoever or whatever took Eren, Mikasa would make sure that they pay for their crimes. After all, her specialty was carving meat. She would make sure that whoever took him gets an appropriate punishment in the form of whatever Mikasa wanted to do. Armin would never object against her on that. Armin cared for Eren very much as well, and he would not object to anything Mikasa wanted to do against the person who took him away. Not only did this person take away one of his only friends, but took away the most important person in Mikasa's life. In that aspect, it was a great offense against both of them. But things were finally a bit calmed down. He felt as if their lives were looking a little better, now that they were out of the cadet corps. They could take the fight to the Titans, and carry on Eren's legacy.

Suddenly, a flash of blinding light and a harsh wind caused Armin and Mikasa to suddenly turn in the direction of the light. The wind was so intense that it seemed like they would both fall off the wall. Armin swiftly grabbed Mikasa and held her close in a protective way, then hid behind one of the cannons, holding on for dear life as the steam shot out like a cannon. It was like a bullet straight to the face. It was so hard to hold on. But he couldn't lose Mikasa. He had already lost one friend and he wasn't going to lose another. He couldn't. He wouldn't be able to take it. Not again. As the smoke cleared, Armin was left face-to-face with a familiar sight. Eyes widening in complete fear as he stared at the same being that had ruined his life so long ago. It was him. He was there on that day. He caused it. This /thing/, the thing that killed Eren's mother. The thing that killed so many people. It killed /everyone/. Armin felt a sense of both fear and rage fill his body as he stared at the being in front of him. He knew he couldn't fight it. It would be hopeless to do so.

_'But Eren would've'_ he thought to himself. Eren would've charged straight towards that giant brute and would've given it all or died trying. He was... such an idiot. But he was an idiot in his own special way. What he lacked in decision making skills. He made up for in his sheer determination. He missed that determination, seeing the desire in his eyes when he talked about his dream about killing all the Titans. His perseverance. Eren would never give up. He was always so determined. He would always encourage Armin to pursue his dreams. He wished Eren was here with them. He wished he would come back. Eren would've charged forwards at that Titan. So why can't Armin?

 _'You aren't Eren. Eren is gone.’_ His thoughts intruded upon themselves. A large rumbling coming from the wall as the Colossal Titan kicked a giant hole in it. Just like it did 5 years ago at Shiganshina. History was repeating itself, and the question was... would he be able to conquer this reawakened fear within himself? Would he be able to stand up for once, and prove himself to not be as useless as he thinks he is? He already failed Eren. He wouldn't fail Mikasa. Still holding her tightly, he let go once the Colossal Titan disappeared, his eyes widened with an unfathomable fear inside of them. But something inside Armin told him to fight. Perhaps it was a little bit of Eren that rubbed off on him.

"Let's go Mikasa! There's no time to waste! We need to get back to base and join the rest of the soldiers!" Armin yelled assertively for once in his life. A newfound determination was in his eyes. Perhaps anger about himself. In an attempt to prove himself useful, to prove himself worthy of being a soldier. As Armin stated that, Mikasa got up and swiftly nodded. They both jumped off of the wall and activated their maneuver gear. Entering the fray. Although they were both currently unaware of it, the events of this battle would forever stick with both of them. In a way that they never would have saw coming in their entire lives. Armin's act of determination in this moment would set off a chain reaction of events that would lead to a fate that led them directly to their lost friend, Eren.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for a shorter chapter today! I was quite busy. I hope you guys enjoy the story so far! I’ll try to keep updating on a daily basis.


	5. The Beast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The return of Eren Yeager... kind of. As a Titan, Eren’s mind is fractured, and he remembers nothing of his life as a human. But with the voices in his head and the insatiable hunger that he feels whenever he sees another Titan, Eren Yeager has become the monster he wanted to exterminate.

Blank. That's all he felt. He felt blank. He felt trapped. Who was he? Why was he here? Where was he? There were a million voices in his head and too many thoughts to be able to focus on a single one. His hulking, 15-meter large body moving slowly and steadily. He knew nothing. Nothing but the things in front of him. The trees, the grass beneath his feet, his toes digging into the dirt as if he was a child at the beach. His mind was a fractured mess. He could not think, let alone remember a single thing from before the one day where he woke up outside of a big thing. He didn't know what the big thing was, just that it was big. He didn't have a name anymore, not that he could even process what a name was anymore. Big emerald eyes stared down at the trees in front of him, looking at the many branches. They were small. Small compared to him. For some reason, he had always thought that his body was unfamiliar. Like he wasn't supposed to be in it. But this is how he had always been! He had never known anything different. A primal feeling always filled his body when he saw his reflection in the water of a pond. It always looked so wrong. He could never put his finger on it, but when he looked at his reflection, he just always saw something that he felt like he wasn't. It was his body, but that's not who he was. It was wrong. He felt like it was wrong, even though he didn't know why. For some reason he felt a pang of emotion whenever he looked down at it. He felt angry. Looking at himself would always boil his anger to extremes and make him take it out on things. It felt like he was something that he hated, but he didn't know why he hated it. He had always felt like that. He knew about the other 'big ones' as he internally called them. The thing in the reflection looked like a big one, but he wasn't a big one. He knew he wasn't. That's why it made him so angry. The big ones were bad, that's what his body and mind told him. The big ones were so bad that he needed to kill them. So, he always did.

Every time he looked at a Titan, or rather; what he called a 'big one', he felt a primal hunger rise up in his body. He always felt hungry. It was always so prevalent in his body. He felt like he needed to put things in his mouth and chew them. He had considered going after the strange brown, four-legged creatures with sticks in their heads. But his body always lost its appetite whenever he picked one up to put it in his mouth. He would feel sick and nauseous even attempting to bite into it. He was never able to do it, and would always put the strange creature back on the ground. He called those things the 'stick beasts', unaware that what he was referring to were called deer. Every time he picked one of them up, they would stop moving once he put them back down. Then they would fall over. Maybe they were asleep. Stupid stick beasts. Why would you sleep at light time? Perhaps the stick beasts sleep during light time. But as interested as he was in them, the Titan would never notice that he burned the skin off of the animal from his body temperature. He never noticed or understood that the animal died when being picked up by him. The Titan understood death. After all, he would get so hungry whenever he saw a big one that he just had to start chowing down. He eventually came to understand that if he bites the back of the neck, the big one would stop moving. Sometimes the big ones would fight back. He hated the big ones. They were gross, but he was so hungry whenever he saw one that he needed to sate it. It would always cause him pain if he refused. He always felt... so angry. Why did he feel so angry? Why was he so angry at everything? Every time he saw one of them, he just wanted to watch them suffer. He wanted to watch them dissolve. He wanted to watch them be ripped to shreds painfully by him. He wanted... to consume.

This Titan's former name was Eren Yeager, having been turned a year ago from those two strange men that he could no longer remember. He could no longer remember anything before waking up outside that wall. His mind, at that point, was so broken and fractured that he couldn't think straight. There were always so many voices in his head. They echoed and contradicted themselves. They would always be so different in voice, tone and direction. They only ever agreed on one thing. Whenever he saw a big one, he must eat. He must kill. They screamed at him to do it. His body would twitch. He would scream. He would do anything to try and drown out the voices and screams in his head. But they weren't the only thing telling him to kill. His body would have every nerve tempting him to go kill. His body would suddenly flare up in emotion. He could never escape from the urges. He... he needed to do it! Yes. He needed to kill!

 _'Kill the big one! Do it! Do it now! Bite his leg! Consume the flesh! Eat!'_ The voices would constantly scream. It felt like he was constantly under control. But deep down, the Titan knew that he really wanted to. He really wanted to eat the big ones. He wanted to see them scream and suffer. He wished for their suffering so he could watch. The feeling of their flesh in his mouth would bring a euphoria to him. His hunger was never physically sated, but it felt like he was being mentally sated. Unlike other Titans, he never threw up his meals, since Titan flesh dissolves after death. His hunger was not only because of the voices, but because deep down, the remnants of his human mind were trying to distract his Titan body. It was trying to distract his body from going after humans, because deep down, he still had that hunger for humans. Or, as he called, the 'little ones'.

He has seen many of the little ones pass the forest. They would be on brown four-legged fast things. They looked like the stick beasts but without the sticks. He has always taken a peaked interest in the little ones. He felt like he had seen them before. He felt like they were... familiar. But he had never seen them before then. At that time, when he first saw the little ones, he started to run towards one of them, interested in the little ones and what they were. As curious as Eren was, he could sense danger, and more importantly, he knew how to fight. He had done it on many of the big ones. He would lunge onto the big ones and start to feast. He would restrain them and make sure they couldn't move. Due to Eren's sheer strength, it was fruitless for the Titans to move or resist against his fury. But instead of rage when he saw the little ones, he was instead filled with curiosity. But he also felt something else. It was something that he was keeping dormant. Something he was hiding from himself. Even he didn't know what he was hiding. When he first saw the little ones, he tried getting up close to one of the little ones. He had waited for one of them to pass by before grabbing them out from the shadows.

"Shit! It's an abnormal!" The soldier yelled, reaching into his pocket, his hand shaking as he reached in to get a capsule for something. He grabbed a flare gun and shot it straight into Eren's face. It hit him straight in the eye, a black smoke flare soon coming out from the forest. Eren screeched in pain as he dropped the little one, his yell somewhat sounding... primordial. It sounded like he was in pain, and it sounded like he was angry. Eren always felt angry. He always felt like he wasn't supposed to be himself. Like if he was something he hated. After being shot in the face, when Eren's eye had healed to where he could see again, the little one was gone, and so was the brown thing he rode on. That was a mean little one. But something inside himself told him that not all the little ones were like that. They were not as bad as the big ones.

Today had been a fairly normal day for the Titan, however earlier today was met with a surprise. The little ones exited the big thing and entered the big forest where he made his home. In the forest, the trees were very big. They were even big than him, and the big ones. He would often lean against the trees and rub himself against them, essentially scratching himself like a bear when he had an itch. Sometimes, he would lay in the grass and roll in the dirt, and the strange creatures that lived in the forest would come and mess with his long brown hair. He actually didn't know that there were a number of bird nests inside his hair. He was absolutely covered in grime and filth, and he didn't seem to mind. How could he? It was all he's ever known. Today, however, while the little ones were in the forest, he saw an especially little one. He was very little, smaller than the other little ones. He was very fast, and flew through the air like a bird. He saw him kill some of the big ones. The little ones also do not like the big ones. Which is why he liked the little ones. However, who he called the 'Tiny little one' internally, was his favorite little one, because he took down the most of the big ones. He made sure to stay out of sight of the tiny little one, as he did not want to get hurt. Eren was unaware that he was a titan. He was unaware that he was the thing he hated. He thought he was just big, but he wasn't a big one. That's what he thought. But he was the same size of the big ones, so he didn't want the little ones to think he was a big one and kill him. Yet whenever Eren looked down in that reflection of the pond when he went by it, all he saw was the thing he hated. He saw a Titan. He saw himself, but he didn't want to believe he was one. He was not a big one. He couldn't be. He hated the big ones.

After the little ones left, Eren went back to doing what he normally did at this time, which was leave the forest to go walk around and explore. He didn't actually really know what he was doing, he never did half of the time. But suddenly, he saw a large light in the distance. It was familiar... why did he know that light? He felt like he was missing something big. Like if that light had something to do with him. He felt like that light meant bad things, so he turned towards the light. Then, he saw the biggest big one he has ever seen. It was hideous. It was huge, much bigger than him, and even the trees in the forest that he hung around. An unfathomable rage and hunger filled his body.

 _'The giant big one is going to be so tasty! Kill him! Eat his corpse! Eat him and make him suffer! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Devour! Devour! Devour! You're so hungry! You won't need to eat again if you eat him! Eat him! Eat him!'_ The voices screamed at him. They were louder than ever before. They kept repeating in his head. They kept screaming to devour the giant big one. The worst part was that he wanted to. Deep down, he wanted to kill the giant. He wanted to make him suffer. He wanted to rip the flesh from his body and rip his jaw off. He wanted to bite down on his neck and just start digging in. He wanted to eat him. He was agreeing with the voices. He would be better off if it was dead. He wanted to kill it himself. He wanted not just to eat it, he wanted to purposefully make it suffer and watch it do so. The giant big one was the worst of them all. He would kill the giant big one, and after it was dead, he would have a celebratory feast upon the flesh of the giant big one. With these thoughts in his head, Eren let out a deafening roar of rage. It sounded so angry. So powerful. His roar even sounded somewhat human. But it also sounded monsterous. It was a roar filled with rage, and that rage was not going to be sated until that giant big one was dead.

He started to run towards the big wall at an astounding speed. His feet left giant footprints in the ground as he ran, creating craters. By using the tips of his feet to run, he was using an advanced running technique to make himself faster. His eyes, once a normal greenish hue, now glowed an unnatural neon green. It was like his pure rage made his eyes glow. Like if he was some kind of supernatural being of pure rage incarnate. He roared again as he ran, not any less angry than the last roar. In fact, as he started to approach the Colossal beast, his roars of rage got even more intense. Steam billowed out of his mouth, puffing out at certain intervals between his teeth. Unlike most other Titans, Eren lacked lips entirely. It was just like teeth were stuck on his skin. Saliva dripped down from his lipless mouth as he continued to roar even more. There was no doubt that almost every creature present within a 200 meter vicinity of Eren's location heard his angered cries. He was that loud. It was that intense. His rage was almost radiating off of him. The pores on his back and arms starting to let out steam, as if he was just a boiling vat of water, the pressure and heat getting so intense that it was starting to escape through his skin.

Suddenly, as he approached the gate of the big stone thing, the giant big one suddenly disappeared. If caused the titan's rage-filled eyes and widen as he finally got to the gate. There were many other big ones inside. But they were not the giant big one. His pointed ears could hear the sounds of screaming. It sounded like the screams of the little ones when a big one caught them. But he was not focused on the screams. He was focused on where the giant big one went. It couldn't have just disappeared!! Where was the giant big one hiding!? It was too big to hide without being seen, so where was it?? Eren let out a large roar of frustration, and somewhat of a challenging roar, as if saying 'I'm right here, you son of a bitch! Come get me! I'll rip you to shreds!' But there was no response from the giant big one. There was no roar of response. Titans did not have a language, but when one roars at another, the instinct is to roar back. It's the sign of a challenge. The sign of a conflict. But there was no roar back. The giant big one had fled, like a coward. The big ones are truly despicable, disgusting creatures.

Suddenly, Eren heard a roar from behind him. It was not the roar of the giant big one. Turning his head to look behind him slowly, steam huffing out of his mouth as he took heavy breaths. Those glowing green eyes stared in complete rage at the being behind him. It was a big one, the same size as him. It assumed that Eren's roar was a threat against it. It was challenging him. A deep, low growl escaped his throat as he turned around to face the big one. Eren was filled with rage. He just lost the giant big one. Now this big one was challenging him. It was provoking him. Eren swiftly grabbed the head of the beast, his titanic grip pressing into the titan's skull. He then, without hesitation, slammed the titan's head into a wall. The titan's sickening blood splattering all over his arm and the wall as it started to evaporate as soon as it was exposed to oxygen. He got his face close to the other titan's, letting out a roar at the Titan as he held its head against a wall. As if saying 'Is this what you want, bastard?!'

He then started to repeatedly smash the head of the Titan into the wall. Over, and over, and over again. Blood splattered all over his body and his arm as he continued to smash it into the wall.

 _'Die! Die! Die! Die you bastard!!'_ His voices screamed in his head, seemingly taking pleasure at the complete and utter mutilation he was performing on this Titan. He kept slamming it into the wall. He didn't care about its screams. He continued to smash it into the wall, it's skull being flattened down until there was nothing left of its head but a bloody stump. Once the head was gone, Eren let go of the body and let it drop to the floor. He then stomped on its nape, steam huffing out of its mouth and growls escaping his throat as he stomped on it. He kept stomping until the body started to dissolve. Satisfied with his kill, Eren turned his head up to the sky and let out a roar of victory.

His job was not done. There were more big ones inside the big hole, surrounded by the big stone things. He was going to have a field day. Letting off some steam to get his mind off of the giant big one, but in reality, it was just getting him more riled up.

 _'Kill them all! Kill all the big ones! Don't stop until their bodies are dust! Eat them! Eat them until you can't eat anymore! Eat them all!!'_ He finally seemed to agree with the voices in his head. There was nothing in Eren's mind but rage and hunger. It was like a pit in his stomach waiting to be filled by the flesh of the big ones. He wouldn't stop until they were all dead. That part of Eren always staid the same. He hated the big ones. Although his original plan wasn't to eat all the Titans, his new body seemed to agree more with that plan. To satisfy his never ending hunger. He needed to eat... all of the big ones. All of them. Eren began to walk in through the hole. A large **'THUMP'** coming from every step he took. Soon after entering the city, Eren noticed two big ones. There was a little one in its hand. This was really the first time he had ever seen a big one eat a little one. Is that what the big ones do? Is that why the big ones are so bad, among other things? They eat... the little ones? How dare they eat the little ones!

Eren let out a roar as he charged towards the one with the little one in it's hand. He swiftly jumped straight onto it's back, cracking it's spine as he crushed it with his weight. He started stomping on it, crushing its nape repeatedly until it was dead. The other big one near him started to charge at him, but Eren knew how to fight. He grabbed the big one's arm, and spun around, quite literally ripping the arm off of the big one. At this point, blood was completely soaking his entire body. His feet, his hair, even his face was covered with it. But he didn't seem bothered by it. It was normal to him. He would often eat the big ones after killing them, and that was an extremely bloody ordeal. After ripping the big one's arm off , Eren held the big one's head in place forcefully, before shoving the big one's arm straight into its own mouth. He kept pressing it in before it bursted outside the back of it's nape, blood spurting out as it fell to the ground. Limp and dead. Eren didn't even check where the little one was, nor did he care. He was on a rampage and he wasn't going to stop.

He let out a growl in satisfaction as he looked down at his kills, drool dribbling down from his lipless mouth as he continued on his way. His greasy brunette hair still stained red from Titan blood. He continued on his rampage, killing a multitude of big ones before he came upon one specific one. It had grey hair. It also had a large, grey beard. But the big one wasn't what caught his interest. He noticed a little one sitting on its knees hopelessly on the roof. It was covered with blood, and it had blonde, chin-length hair, and royal blue eyes. It looked sad, but Eren was confused. Why was the little one not killing the big one? Isn't that what the little ones do? That's all he's ever seen them doing... but maybe not all little ones kill big ones. Maybe this one could not kill the big one. But there was another perplexing thing as he stared at the little one. This little one felt important. It felt important to him. It was strange because he has never seen this little one before. Did he know this little one? No, he couldn't have. But... he felt like this little one was important. He felt a need to protect this little one.

 _'Important! Important little one! Do not let yellow hair little one to be hurt! Do not! Yellow hair little one is important. The big one is going to hurt the important little one! Do not let it! Do not! Yellow hair little one is familiar. Important little one. He is good little one, not bad little one. Good little one! Save the little one!'_ Eren's voices in his head encouraged him to do that one thing. His voices always repeated things because there was so many of them. They finally moved away from murder for once... kind of. Eren's mind had many different voices, and they all spoke at the same time in conjunction with each other. Sometimes they said contradicting things. But other times they all stated the same thing, or the relatively same idea.

Eren was suddenly snapped out of his trance when he saw that the important yellow hair little one get dropped into the big one's mouth by it. The yellow hair little one didn't even seem to put up a struggle. What was this little one doing?! Was it defenseless?! Eren let out a roar as he rushed at the big one, it's mouth still open as he almost dashed towards it. His green eyes glowing in rage as he grabbed the top and bottom of the big one's mouth. He growled loudly. That little one was defenseless! The big one tried to eat it! The big ones are truly disgusting, evil creatures. This one deserved everything he would give it. It swallowed the important yellow hair little one. That little one was important even though he didn't know. His pointed ears drooped down in hostility, like a cat, and suddenly, Eren began pushing at the titan's mouth, separating the top and the bottom slowly more and more. Then the flesh of the big one started to rip. It started to growl and attempt to fight back, but at this point, it was useless to do so. He kept separating them farther and farther from eachother. The force increasing with every second. Then, he finally got the right hold, and ripped the Titan in half in a spray of blood. The fluid in it's stomach cavity spilling out as it gets ripped in two pieces. The yellow-haired little one falling out with the rest of the stomach fluid.

Once Eren saw that the important yellow hair little one was out, he slammed the half of the big one with the nape on the ground. Then, within seconds, he stomps on its nape until it's dead. It's dissolving body on the ground. Eren didn't care about the Titan, though. He looked back down at the fluid on the ground. He saw the important-yellow haired little one on the ground. It was staring at him in awe and fear. Eren looked at the little one for a moment. Why did it look so familiar? He blinked his glowing green eyes slowly as he stared down at the little one. As important as this little one was, he could not stay here for long. He was still so hungry, and yet he hasn't gotten a chance to eat yet. He's only killed, but that was only half of the fun. So, Eren let out a puff of steam out of his mouth through his closed teeth as an acknowledgement of the little one, and a slight grunting noise. Then, he stepped over the little one and started to walk away. He needed to find more big ones.

As he continued his rampage, Eren saw a black hair little one fly through the air. It was fast. His face was covered with blood and it was slightly impeding his vision, but Eren recognized that speed. Was that his favorite little one, tiny little one? Was tiny little one here? That little one had longer hair than he remembered seeing on tiny little one, but maybe it was tiny little one. He wanted to meet tiny little one. Usually he didn't care for talking or being near the little ones, and was more of a solitary creature, but he wanted to meet tiny little one since that little one killed so many big ones. However, this little one was going so fast that Eren's eyes couldn't keep up. Why was this little one so fast? He just wanted to see if it was tiny little one. Suddenly, the little one he had seen just moments before had fallen out of his vision. Where did they go? They were just here. Eren started to look around for the tiny little one that he believed was here, unaware that this little one he thought was his favorite one, was actually one of his old friends, and adoptive sister. He didn't remember his human life, nor did he know he even had one, so Eren did not recognize Mikasa when he saw her flying through the air.

As Eren looked around, he suddenly saw another big one behind one of the buildings. Oh well, as much as he was interested in seeing the tiny little one, the big ones were more important, and as the feeling of hunger boiled in his chest, he had no choice but to confront that big one. After all, his rage had not faltered and the hungry feeling in his stomach was prompting him to go and kill the big bastard. As Eren turned the corner, he didn't even realize that the little one he thought he wanted to see was on the ground, her maneuver gear out of gas from over-use, and her blades broken. All Eren cared about was his bloodlust, and his hunger for the being in front of him. Stepping forwards and causing the ground to shake from his step, Eren took a swift right hook punch towards the big one's face. Knocking it down. He let out a growl as he crouched down on the big one's body, stepping on the being's legs so it couldn't move while it was on the ground. He noticed that this big one had quite the large stomach. Taking full advantage of this, Eren dug his fingers into the flesh of the stomach, before forcefully ripping it apart in a spray of blood and stomach fluid. The remaining stomach fluid poured out onto the ground as Eren bit down on the being's neck, ripping off the flesh and swallowing it. His eyes were filled with hunger. He couldn't stop himself from biting off the flesh and muscle of the arms and chest in a few bites, swallowing it. It didn't nourish him, but it gave him emotional satisfaction to eat the flesh. It sated his hunger, even though he technically doesn't have a stomach.

Once Eren was done, he swiftly stomped on the big one's neck multiple times to make sure it was dead. With his rage only building, steam huffed out of his mouth as he turned his head toward the heavens. He opened up his giant mouth to let out a roar of anger and victory. It was so deafeningly loud, but at the same time, it sounded so monstrous and human at the same time. It was like the embodiment of humanity's race. As Eren roared in victory, Mikasa's eyes widened in complete and utter shock. As she had just watched a Titan consume another Titan... and it... enjoyed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! Glad that’s over with! I’m excited for Eren’s return, personally, as I love writing monster characters. Sorry for such a long read this time! This chapter is a very important one to understand Eren so I had to make it as long as it is.  
> By the way, I’m going to take a break until Monday. It’s easier for me to focus during the weekdays.


	6. Reflection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Mikasa watches a Titan eat another Titan, she reflects upon what she had done to get herself into this situation, and what could possibly explain the fact that this Titan was eating a member of its own species.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So I wanted to make a bit of a disclaimer here so no one comes at me or anything. The voices inside of Eren’s head are not supposed to represent DID or any kind of other mental illness. The voices in Eren’s head are all himself, his conscience. It’s not any other voices, it’s just his voices and his conscience trying to make decisions, and because of his fractured Titan mind, it is hard for it to manifest as one voice, so they manifest as multiple voices, but all the same person. It’s all his voice. Just broken up into multiple versions.

Blood was everywhere. It had splattered all over the walls and onto the pavement, steam starting to envelop the area as it started to evaporate. This blood was Titan blood. Bits of flesh were scattered around the area, slowly starting to steam and disintegrate, as they had been separated from the host's body. This was all Titan flesh. At the source of all of the blood, was a large, 15 meter Titan with long brown hair. It was still crouched down. Still chomping on the body of another of it's species. On the ground, a couple meters away from the spectacle, was a young woman with shoulder-length black hair. She watched the Titan eat another Titan in complete and utter awe. How was this possible? It had to have been an abnormal, of course. After all, no normal Titan would eat other Titan. But she had never seen an abnormal like this. One that ate its own kind. Titans didn't need to eat, they just ate to kill. So then why? Why would it eat the other Titan other than just immediately killing it? It certainly had the power to. So what was it doing? Why was it eating it? As Mikasa pondered these questions and continued to watch the spectacle, still crouching on the ground, she reflected on the events that led up to this moment. What she had done to get here. Her failure in the battle of Trost, miraculously saved at the last moment by this abnormal. It felt like she should've died. But she didn't. At least, not yet.

_-30 minutes ago-_

After jumping off the wall with Armin, Mikasa got a good look of the aftermath that the colossal Titan left. There were large boulders everywhere. Crushing houses, crushing people, crushing everything in their paths. It reminded her of that day 5 years ago, in Shiganshina, when her and Eren miraculously survived the initial hole, and tried to go check if their mother was okay. Unfortunately, when they had gotten to the house, it had been caved in, with Mrs. Yeager trapped underneath heavy wooden beams. As the Titans advanced in the wall, they had both attempted to lift up the wood beams. However, due to them both being children, their efforts were fruitless. Panic was seeping into both of them as they tried so hard to lift up the boards and save their mother. But to no avail. At that time, a familiar face had shown up to help both of them with their efforts, but he foolishly charged through and got scared straight by the Titan. In an act of panic, Hannes sacrificed Mrs. Yeager while he ran off with the two children, Eren and herself. Eren was screaming out for his mother. She could still remember the screams today. She wondered what Eren would say in this situation now. He'd probably say something about how'd he kill all the Titans. How he'd tear that Colossal Titan apart. He'd probably get himself killed while trying to save someone or enact his revenge, but Mikasa wouldn't let him die. But Eren wasn't here. He was gone. But Mikasa couldn't be hung up with thoughts of Eren right now! She needed to focus. She needed to meet up with the commander, and then they would be deployed from there.

As Mikasa and Armin continued to use their 3D maneuver gear to navigate through the city and get back to HQ, Armin momentarily turned around while moving. He saw the Titans starting to come in. They were swarming into the Trost district. It wouldn't be long before an unmanageable number of them got inside. The soldiers needed to somehow plug up that wall, or possibly, they needed to get all of the citizens evacuated and fall back to Wall Rose. However, Armin's main concern was that the Armored Titan may return and attempt to breach into Wall Rose. If it did that, humanity was sure to perish. There was no conceivable way that all of these people could survive in the interior. They'd probably send another 'reclamation mission' that was just a form of population control. Like the one they sent his grandfather on.

"Mikasa!" Armin turned his head towards her quickly. "We're closing in on HQ!" He stated, letting her know their relative location compared to the commander of the squads. It was their sign that they needed to be prepared for any kind of order, be it squad work, or evacuation duty. They might be separated from eachother when divided into squads. It was most likely, but Armin was determined to prove himself useful to Mikasa. There's no doubt that Mikasa would probably be put on the elite squad. Mikasa nodded, and as they finally reached HQ, they quickly lined up with the rest of the soldiers, who were currently getting the low-down from the commander.

"Soldiers! We are going to drive back these Titans until all of the citizens are evacuated! Understand?!" The commander yelled, his booming voice echoing throughout al of the soldier's ears. His orders were clear. There wasn't a single soldier that didn't get the point. There were no repeats in battle. You either do it once or die trying. That's how battle was. Mikasa and Armin had both understood this since the minute they stepped inside those cadet camps.

"Yes Sir!" All of the soldiers yelled, including Mikasa and Armin. All of the soldiers quickly saluted the commander and then dispersed. Most likely going to prepare their gear and get the necessary supplies for battle. After all, if a soldier didn't have extras, they were sure to die on the battlefield. Armin wasn't the best at combat, so he honestly believed he had a significant chance of not making it back. But he had to try and keep on the positive side of things. He needed to survive. For Eren. So he could see the ocean. Even if Eren wasn't going to be here to see it with him, he wanted to see it, so perhaps Eren could watch it from above. He's not insinuating that Eren is dead, but to be perfectly honest, it's a likely outcome to what happened to him.

"Hold it Arlert, Ackermann!" The commander yelled as Armin and Mikasa attempted to disperse to prepare as well. Both of them stopped in their tracks to look behind them. The commander was standing over them, his hulking figure so large compared to either of them.

"Arlert, you're assigned to squad 135. Ackermann, you're with the elite squad." He stated, before walking off. It would seem that the commander just wanted to inform them of what squads they were going in. It would seem that Armin's prediction was correct, that they would not be in the same squad together. Armin looked over to Mikasa. His eyes were wide, but they had a look in them, as if saying 'See you, Mikasa. Don't die'. Armin didn't say anything, but Mikasa seemed to understand, as she nodded and started to run off to where the elite squad was. Armin knew that she understood that he was saying goodbye, but he was unaware whether or not she understood the meaning of what he had done. He didn't know if she understood that he meant 'See you' for the last time. Armin was sure that he was too weak to take down Titans. He was sure that he would die, but he didn't want to say that outright. Armin decided to brush the situation off and focus on the task at hand. He quickly made his way over to the supplies, refilling his gas and making sure to bring extra swords with him to fit into his holsters. As he did so, Armin heard a voice beside him.

"So you're in the 135th too, huh? Looks like we're together, then!" Said the voice. Armin looked beside him to see one of the other cadets, Tomas Wagner. Beside him was another cadet, Mina Carolina. It looked like all of them would be together in the 135th cadet squad. Armin showed a hesitant smile. He would've genuinely smiled at being paired up with people he knew, but he considered the situation too dire to really be able to smile right now.

"Yeah, I guess we are. Let's get going." He stated, his blue eyes looking up at Tomas and Mina. Armin finished refilling his gas, and adjusted his gear for a second. Then, it was clear he was ready to go out into the fray. Physically, yes, he was ready, but Armin was not ready at all mentally. He felt like a rabbit that was about to hop right into a den of foxes. He knew he was going to die and he didn't have to even say anything. It was just something he knew was going to happen. Something that he felt as if it was unavoidable.

Mikasa, meanwhile, had already met up with the Elite squad, and left. Currently, they had been tasked with defending the evacuating citizens from the Titans. The elite squad of the garrison was a very well-renowned group. Ian and Rico were clearly elite soldiers, and it was shown clear as day when they fought. They sliced up the Titans efficiently and quickly. As soldiers should. As Mikasa was defending the evacuating citizens, she suddenly heard the loud banging of feet on the pavement. The **'THUMP' 'THUMP'** noises that were only attributable to one thing; a Titan. Suddenly, a voice rang out from in front of her, as the thumping got louder.

"Abnormal incoming!!!" The voice yelled, before soon being replaced by a scream and a loud **'CRUNCH** ' noise. The poor soldier had been seemingly killed by being stepped on by the abnormal. As the abnormal got closer, she waited for it to turn the corner. As it suddenly started to rush down the street, heading straight for the large congregation of citizens. 3 of the elite squad were stuck on it's tail, chasing after it, but unable to catch up.

"Shit! It's so fast! At this rate, the citizens will be crushed!" Ian yelled out as he attempted to get close to the Abnormal. This was Mikasa's cue. She quickly dashed out from the roof, using the gas to propel her in mid air, before swiftly and effortlessly making two slices across the nape of the Titan. It fell to the ground as the other members of the elite squad dispersed, seeing as the situation seemed to be handled. The Titan fell onto the ground, with Mikasa standing on it's head, as she saw the congregation of citizens. None of them were leaving. Why was that? Mikasa's eyes looked towards the gate, where she saw a large man and an even larger wagon. It was seemingly full of supplies. She started to walk towards the center of the congregation, where the large man was.

"Ah, perfect timing! Tell these simpletons that they need to help me push the wagon!" The man ordered. Mikasa's expression deepened into a scowl.

"Remove the wagon." She stated in a monotone voice, her black eyes staring deep into the man's soul.

"Don't you understand who I am? I pay for your swords! Your gas! Your food! I pay for all of it!" He yells back. Mikasa is clearly having none of it. She points a sword towards the large man's, her face deep with hate.

"My comrades are out there dying for you. If you know what's good for you, you will remove the wagon. My specialty is carving meat, and I would hate to have to use it on you." She stated, her usually monotone and quiet voice extremely hateful and demanding at the large man. The man seemed intimidated by this, and with fear and hesitation in his eyes, he ordered for his men to remove the wagon. The citizens started cheering, one girl and her mother coming over to thank Mikasa. The little girl even said she wanted to be a soldier like her when she grew up, and save people's lives. Mikasa had a small smile on her face as she watched them leave to safety, which quickly faded as she used her 3D maneuver gear to blast off back into the fray. Now that all of the citizens were evacuated, Mikasa needed to meet up with Armin and see how he was doing.

Armin, at the moment, had just arrived to the fray. He looked at his friends, Tomas and Mina, and nodded.

“Let’s see who can kill the most Titans!” Mina stated eagerly to Tomas. Armin was not personally the competitive type. He was content enough with killing one Titan. Perhaps that would prove to himself that he wasn’t useless after all. That he could be useful to Mikasa in battle. After all, if they were going in the Survey corps, Armin was going to need a lot more than his smarts alone to keep him alive. Granted, Armin didn’t exactly think that he was making it out of here alive. But it would be a nice thought if he did.

“Hell yeah! Whoever kills the most gets the other’s bread loaf at dinner!” Tomas stated excitedly in challenge to Mina. Mina’s face went determined in return.

“You’re on!” She exclaimed. Immediately after saying that, Mina and Tomas blasted off of the rooftops, Armin soon following as they flew through the air. So far, so good. No Titans so far! Perhaps they could meet up with the others in the center without running into a single tita-

“BE CAREFUL! AN ABNORMAL!” Armin yelled out, swiftly dodging the jumping abnormal as he soon latched onto the side of a roof. The abnormal hit the clock tower, latching onto it like a spider. Armin soon felt that something was gravely wrong. There was someone missing. Someone was no longer here next to him, and as he finally noticed who it was, the titan’s head peeked out from behind the clock tower. There, in the abnormal’s mouth, was his friend, Tomas Wagner. His face was devastated. He had a look of absolute fear as the Titan held him in it’s mouth.

“Guys...” he muttered out, before being swallowed by the Titan. It was disgusting, Armin’s face was in complete shock. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think. He knew that he shouldn’t move or go after the abnormal. It would just make it more likely that he himself would die.

“TOMAS!!!!!!!!” Mina yelled out in panic, starting to 3D maneuver her way towards the abnormal in an attempt to get revenge.

“Mina! No! Don’t move!” Armin yelled as he followed her, desperately attempting to grab her. But his attempts were in vain as she was soon grabbed by a Titan in mid air. Armin swiftly landed on a roof. His face was desolated. It was like he had lost all of his hope in an instant.

 _‘Why can’t I move? Why... am I just watching my friends be eaten?’_ Armin thought to himself as he fell to his knees. His mind had completely disconnected from reality. He was unaware of anything and everything around him, to the point where he didn’t even notice the sounds of roaring and growling nearby. He didn’t even know that the abnormal Titan that was once his friend Eren was going on a rampage just a small bit away. As he heard thumping get louder, he did not move. It was like he had lost his will to live. He did not register the fact that there was a Titan in front of him. As the Titan slowly picked him up, his dazed and desolate expression even staid more constant as he was suddenly dropped inside the mouth of the Titan. The minute he got dropped, it was like he suddenly snapped back to reality. He started screaming as he started to slide down the Titan’s throat, hearing growling and thumping coming from outside of the Titan. However, as much as he tried. Armin was unable to keep himself in the mouth of the titan, and eventually slid down the slimy throat, landing in the stomach cavity of the Titan. As he looked around him, his breathing hitched and got quicker as he saw all of the bodies inside the Titan. Tears started to flow down from his eyes as he was faced with the desolate sight.

 _‘Is this where I die?’_ He thought. However, suddenly. He heard a loud and angry roar. Light suddenly entered the cavern of the stomach of the Titan. What was going on? Why could he see light, and why did he hear roaring? Soon enough, The stomach cavity started to be ripped open, the fluid starting to drain out, bringing Armin down with it. He fell down onto the ground like a newborn giraffe. Covered with the stomach fluid of the Titan, he watched as the titan’s body was tossed to the side. Up above him, looking straight down at him, was another Titan. It had long, brown hair. It’s glowing green eyes surrounded by a darker patch of skin, like a raccoon. It lacked lips, it’s jaw larger than a normal human’s, with teeth showing on the outside. It let out a low growl, and Armin stared in shock. Why was it looking at him like that? Why did this Titan just kill this other Titan? Was this an abnormal?? Armin didn’t have much time to observe the Titan before it started to stride off again. Armin took this as his chance, and quickly reactivated his 3D maneuver gear, going onto the rooftop to observe the Titan from a safer spot. What was it?

Mikasa had been searching for Armin for a while at this point, but had yet to find him or the others yet. She was worried, even though she didn’t show it outwardly. Where was Armin? Did something bad happen to him? Please god no, she couldn’t take the loss of another friend. She had already lost one. She couldn’t lose another. Not now. Mikasa was searching at a rapid speed, but what she didn’t realize was that her gas was about to run out. She was too frantic, too focused on finding her friend to notice her gas running out. However, it was already too late. She soon ran out of gas, and fell down onto a street, her blades broken and her gas out. Mikasa was faced with a desperate situation. She was defenseless against the Titans. However, she did not panic. She looked up towards the sky, holding her broken blade as she reflected. Reflected on her life, reflected on what she had done to get herself here. Reflected on Eren, and how much she would love to be up with him in the clouds.

 _‘I’ve.... lived a good life.’_ She thought to herself as she was faced with death. She could hear the thumping of the Titan. She knew one was coming. She accepted her fate... but did she? Should she live on, for Eren, or join him in the clouds? It was a choice that she didn’t have time to make. She felt a thumping from behind her, too. She didn’t bother to look behind her, and as the large Titan in front of her reached its hand out to grab her, she was suddenly knocked away by the large step of the Titan behind it. It punched a large, left-hook punch at the other Titan before pinning it to the ground and starting to eat.

_-Present-_

Mikasa watched the Titan eat with a shocked expression. But before she could have time to finish on her thoughts and questions about the large beast, she suddenly heard the sounds of 3D maneuver gear, and felt something wet touch against her back. Mikasa looked up to find Armin, who was holding her as he looked at her with complete worry. He soon landed on the roof opposite from where the situation with the Titan was happening. Armin quickly grabbed Mikasa’s shoulders in worry.

“Mikasa!! Are you okay?!” He asked, a concerned voice coming out of him. He was concerned for Mikasa.

“I’m fine, Armin. Thank you.” She stated with gratitude as she managed to stand up. Looking at Armin. “What happened to you, Armin? Why are you covered in that strange liquid?” She asked, returning his concern that he had for her.

“I got swallowed by a Titan. But...” he looked over to the Titan, who had now got up and roared in victory. Beginning to walk off and try and find another target. “That Titan... that abnormal.. it... saved me. It ripped the other Titan in half while I was in it.” He muttered out, still in shock about the whole situation.

“The Titan saved you?” Mikasa asked, shock filling her voice as she looked at the large abnormal.

“Yeah... but, the strange thing was... when I finally fell back onto the ground, it didn’t go immediately kill the other Titan. It looked down at me, as if making sure I was safe. And the look in it’s eyes... it was like it knew me. Like... the Titan was looking at someone it knew before...” he stated, looking back at the Titan, who was now feasting upon another Titan. However... that Titan.... why did it feel the desire to save him...?


	7. Tension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Armin and Mikasa try and comprehend why this Titan saved them both, the other cadets have their own issues that they’re dealing with. As tensions rise among the cadets, the feeling of fear starts to grow among them as they struggle to figure out a plan that would allow them to get out alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! Thanks for reading another chapter! So, an update on what my posting schedule is going to be like, I’m going to try and post a chapter every day, except for on the weekends. The weekends are my rest days. However, if I don’t post a chapter on the weekdays, I may be busy or just pondering ideas. So in that case, sorry for any inconvenience.

The lingering scent of flesh and blood in the air permeated around the area. It was a desolate, destructive sight. While the two soldiers were taking a temporary moment to catch their breath on a roof, it seemed to be one of the only intact roofs in the area. Others had been stomped on, caved in, burn, or simply collapse on itself from the weight. Even this roof was stained with blood, from both soldiers and citizens alike. There was no glory in fighting like this. It was something that they simply had to do, and the casualties were high. No one enjoyed doing this. In fact, many soldiers threw up from fear when the order was announced that they had to go and fight the Titans and defend the citizens. Others, who were oblivious to the horrors, thought they would gain glory or a heroic image of themselves to their other teammates. How wrong they were when they saw the real horrors of the Titans. How they saw their comrades die, and in their shock or adrenaline from seeing the deaths of their friends, foolishly charging at the Titans only to have themselves be eaten in return. Mikasa had become numb to the death and destruction at this point. She was taught that the world was cruel long ago. However, this mindset did not come to mind when Eren went missing. She had cried, behind closed doors. She just missed him, and she knew that the chances of him being alive were so slim. There was no hope of him being alive. Which is exactly why she placed those flowers on his bed. She had accepted the fact that he was dead. It did not dull the pain, but it did leave her somewhat at a standstill. _'There is no shame in mourning'_ , she tried to tell herself. But she did feel shameful. Crying in front of others would not help her. It would not bring Eren back. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of Armin's voice, as he responded to her question. However, what really caught her attention was the comment he made afterwards, about how the Titan was 'looking at him like it knew him.'

"What do you mean by that, Armin?" The young woman's voice asked in somewhat of a curious tone, but her voice was always just a little monotone. It's not that she wasn't interested, but her voice was just naturally very calm and emotionless sounding.

"Nothing, nothing. It's not important right now. I was just making a comment on how I thought it was strange, but it's an abnormal, so I suppose its behavior is beyond our understanding." He stated in a response. As much as he would like to observe the abnormal longer, they had a much more pressing issue at hand. The order to retreat had been issued, but he noticed that his and Mikasa's gas tanks were low, as well as his own. Mikasa's had been completely depleted. "Mikasa, your gas... here, take my extras. We need to need up with the others and figure out what the situation is. If there are any left, that is." He muttered out that last part, but it was audible to Mikasa. He unlatched his extra gas canisters, handing them to Mikasa, and also unsheathing two of his leftover blades, handing them to Mikasa as well.

"Thank you, Armin. I agree with your plan." She stated softly, attaching the gas canisters to her gear and sheathing the swords. She looked over at him, before looking at the Titan. For some reason that Titan also felt familiar to her. But perhaps she was just thinking of a different Titan that she had seen during shiganshina. There's no possible way that she'd met that Titan before. She's never even seen anything like it. Armin nodded towards Mikasa's reply, and then jumped off of the roof with his maneuver gear, Mikasa soon following. As they made their way through the city, they had decided that going to the center would be the best bet to where everyone was. Thankfully, there were no Titans in sight due to that strange abnormal. It was plowing through them like a ravenous cow in a field of grass. For that, she was thankful, but it was a Titan, after all. It was just doing what it did best; Eat. Perhaps this abnormal's instincts were out of wack, to where it would eat Titans instead of humans. Titans truly were strange, but she would rather see them disintegrating on the ground rather than bother to study them.

Jean had been curled up on the roof with many of the other cadets, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead as he pondered the situation. But all he could think about was how he was going to die. He didn't have enough gas to get to the wall. No matter how he saw it, he was going to die no matter what he did.

"Oh god... this really is the end, isn't it...?" He muttered to himself, holding his hair from stress as he sat in the fetal position. It felt like the end of the world for him. If it had just been a couple of hours... he would've been out of here and in the interior! Why did the Titans have to attack today, of all days?! One more day and he would've been away from those freaks! However, suddenly he was pulled away from his thoughts when a familiar voice responded to his muttering.

"Well, MAYBE if you stopped muttering and actually started forming a plan, we could all get out of here with our asses intact!!" Connie exclaimed in his normally higher-pitched and snarky voice. Jean's head quickly came out from under his knees as he looked at Connie with a scowl on his face. Connie was angry as well, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes with slight anger in them. He was mostly angry at the situation more than anything else, but he took it out on the others as he considered them moping around no help.

"Well what are YOU doing to help Connie?! Why don't you figure out a plan? Oh wait, is it because your pebble-sized brain can't think of anything remotely helpful?!" He snapped back at Connie, Jean stood up as he grit his teeth. His scowl didn't fade one bit as he stared at the smaller male. Jean was much taller than Connie, but Connie wasn't deterred. His smallness just made his temper worse. Much like a Chihuahua.

"At least I'M not sitting on the ground muttering about the end of the world like an idiot! Why don't you shut up, and then maybe you can actually help instead of being useless!" Connie yelled back. Tensions between the two were high, and the others in the group were starting to notice the situation between the two. Connie was trying to get Jean to stop muttering, mostly, as he found it somewhat annoying. That, and also because he wasn't smart enough to come up with a plan. Jean was about to start yelling back, but another voice responded before he could.

"How about you both shut up?" Another familiar voice stated. Both of them looked up in the direction of the voice, and low and behold, it was Ymir.

"You stay out of this, Ymir!! Unless you have a plan to get us outta here, I don't wanna hear it!" Connie yelled at her in retaliation and anger. Connie wanted to come up with a plan, but nothing came to mind. He wished that Armin was here. He was the only one with the brains to pull off a plan that would get them out alive. But he wasn't even here. He didn't even know if Armin was alive.

"Do you think if I had a plan to get out of here alive I would still be here? I would've taken Krista and ran by now." Ymir stated sarcastically and in a mocking sort of tone. In truth, she really didn't care about any of the other cadets except Krista. It seemed like that comment was somewhat of her rubbing it in Connie's face that she didn't care and would let them all die if Krista was safe.

"How about everyone just stop fighting! I don't want us to fight!" Krista yelled as she stood between the two, arms spread out wide. She was the shortest cadet by far. Her petite form and sweet face, with an even sweeter personality. She never liked to see conflict. Her blonde hair and blue eyes were the most noticeable of her features. After Krista had done this, Ymir suddenly put her arm around her shoulder and held her close, her face close to Krista's.

"That's my Krista, always solving conflicts! Do me a favor and marry me after this battle, okay?" Ymir stated in a joyful voice that was uncharacteristic of her normal personality. It would seem that she was really only ever happy around Krista.

"Guys! I see someone-! No, two people! They're headed this way!" Another familiar voice exclaimed from above the other scouts. The source of this voice was Sasha Blouse, a kindhearted young woman with a goofy personality much similar to Connie's, however she got angry less easily and mostly cared about food. However, her natural instincts and bravery in the face of danger made up for her general lack of intelligence. She had currently been sitting on the chimney of the house they were all on, scouting for more cadets or possibly for Titans. The sound of Sasha's voice from above quickly brought Connie's attention away from the situation with Ymir.

"Who is it?! Is it the elite squad?!" Connie yelled back, soon turning his head and peaking over the side of the roof. He didn't see anyone yet, though. Sasha probably was able to detect whoever was coming more quickly because of her heightened instincts. Many of the other cadets had turned towards Sasha's direction as well, intrigued about the situation. Even Reiner, Annie, and Bertholdt's attention were grabbed, even though those 3 have pretty much kept to themselves the majority of the battle. Jean was still mad about the situation, but he had been pulled to the side by Marco in an attempt to calm him down.

"No! It's..." Sasha stopped for a moment, then took a large sniff of the air. "Mikasa and Armin! It's Mikasa and Armin!" She exclaimed excitedly, relieved that they were both alive, standing up on the chimney, as she had been previously sitting. She started to wave towards the both of them, who were now approaching quicker. They had looked up and seen Sasha’s message of her presence. Connie smiled, happy as well that Mikasa and Armin were alive. Jean was taken out of his comfort session with Marco as he heard the news that Mikasa and Armin were alive. A feeling of relief went over him that Mikasa was okay. Jean was still suspicious of that situation with Armin yesterday, with the flowers and all that, but that didn’t exactly matter right now. What mattered was that they were okay.

As Mikasa and Armin landed on the roof, they looked over at all of the cadets that were left. The first face they noticed was Sasha, of course, but Connie, Jean, Ymir, Krista, Marco, and even Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie were visible huddled together in the back.

“I’m glad you’re all safe.” Armin stated with relief in his voice, Mikasa nodding as well as a show that she was also glad that they were safe. Many of the cadets eyes suddenly widened when they saw that Armin was still covered in a noxious goo. Many of them looked really grossed out. It was like he was covered in titan drool. Connie stared in awe. Oh boy, another one of Connie’s stupid questions. Then again, it wasn’t like he didn’t ask them on the daily.

“Armin! What the hell are you covered with?! Did a giant dog decide to lick you or something?!” He asked with a completely serious expression. Connie really was a dumbass, but he was the kind of dumbass that was charming rather than annoying. Of course he could be annoying in his own right, but people who really knew Connie knew that most of the time he just asked things that first came into his mind without even thinking about.

“No. Nothing like that. I actually got swallowed by a Titan, bu-“ before Armin could finish, he was suddenly interrupted by both Connie and Sasha. Sasha, at this point, had jumped off from the chimney to greet Mikasa and Connie.

“WHAT?! YOU GOT SWALLOWED BY A TITAN?!?!” Both of them yelled in unison. They looked absolutely dumbfounded. How did Armin get swallowed by a Titan and live?

“How are you even here if you got swallowed by a Titan?! Are you a ghost?!?! Please don’t haunt me, ghost Armin! I swear that I didn’t MEAN to steal that piece of meat from the officer’s office! Please don’t put coal in my stocking!” Sasha yelled in desperation. It would seem that she was a bit confused on holidays, or even just... entities, here. Connie seemed to buy into what Sasha said, too, so both of them were now begging ‘Ghost Armin’ to not put coal in their stocking because of various bad or mischievous things they had done this year. Some that Armin wasn’t even aware of.

“I think you guys are a bit confused, if you’d just let me explain- I’m not a ghost-“ Armin stated, soon being interrupted by the sound of roaring and thumping. He knew what that sound was. He knew exactly what that sound was coming from. It was approaching, fast.

“Hey, you two! Quit fooling around! Titan incoming!” Reiner suddenly yelled out, latching on to the chimney and moving over to it using his 3D maneuver gear. He unsheathed his swords and stood at the ready for when the Titan was going to turn the corner. Low and behold, the titan soon turned the corner, and Armin instantly recognized the specific Titan that was approaching at a fast pace. Armin suddenly realized that he needed to keep that Titan from getting killed by the cadets, especially since many of them had pulled out their swords. He was going to sound insane, but he had to defend that Titan. It saved him and is going berserk on all of the other Titans. It was a tactical asset in this battle. He couldn’t afford to let it die.

“Reiner! Stop! Don’t kill that Titan!” Armin yelled, before climbing up to the chimney and holding Reiner’s arm. His grip was desperate. After he yelled at Reiner to stop, which actually got Reiner to be distracted and look towards Armin, Armin quickly turned around to face the rest of the cadets. “Everyone! Do not kill that Titan! I know it sounds crazy, but that Titan is an abnormal that kills and eats other Titans! I saw it with my own eyes! It ripped the Titan that ate me in half! This Titan saved my life, and saved Mikasa’s as well!” He yelled, desperately. As the Titan got closer, Reiner pulled toward it a bit, as a reflex. Like if that Titan made a false move, he would slice it’s nape open. Low and behold, though, the Titan just stopped for a moment and looked at all of the ‘little ones’ that it saw. It’s glowing green eyes staring at them.

_\- Eren POV -_

He had turned the corner, and suddenly heard a very loud voice. He was still so busy, and still so hungry. There were many more big ones left, and he was just getting started. He was actually starting to feel a little tired. But it wasn’t dark time. Dark time is when he felt weak and slow. It was still light time, though! So why did he start to feel weak and slow?! Maybe it is the big ones fault! Perhaps the big ones did something to him that made him weak and slow. But he could not stop now. He was still very hungry, and he was still so angry. However, the voice took his attention for a second. It was loud and it felt like it was something that he had heard before. He didn’t understand what it said, but he somehow recognized the noise. Or at least, the tone of the noise. He was unaware that he was actually recognizing Armin’s voice. As he looked up, he suddenly saw a very curious sight! There were so many little ones! They were holding those gray sharp things that he has seen tiny little one use to kill the big ones. The voices in his head started talking again as he looked up at the little ones.

_‘Look, look! So many little ones! Little ones! Many many little ones! What are the little ones doing? Little ones holding sharp grey things that kill big ones. Kill big ones! Little one kill big one! These good little ones! Good little ones! So many good little ones!’_ The voices stated. Eren was quite intrigued, he had never seen so many little ones in one place, and yet a lot of them seemed familiar to him. It felt like these little ones were also important. Wait... could it be? The noises he heard. His eyes looked over towards the source of the noise, and low and behold, there he saw the important yellow hair little one! The important yellow hair little one was here! He was not sure whether the important yellow hair little one had lived, but it had!

_‘Look! It is important yellow little one! Important yellow little one is here! Good that important yellow little one live. Yes, yes! Very good! Very good! Important yellow little one very good!’_ The voices stated after seeing important yellow little one. However, his thoughts had suddenly been pulled away by the sight of the black hair little one that he had seen earlier. To his dismay, it was not tiny little one. It looked different to tiny little one. This little one was very familiar though. He seemed somewhat lost in thought. However, his pointed ears perked up when he suddenly heard thumping. Another big one! He shall go after big one! Kill the big one! Eat the big one! Eren suddenly started to run off in the direction of the big one he heard.

_\- Cadets POV -_

Reiner was staring in shock at how the Titan just stared and ran off towards the sound of another Titan. He seemed completely dumbfounded. All of the cadets did.

“Holy shit...” Reiner muttered out as he looked at where the Titan was running to. He, like all of the cadets, were at a loss for words.

“You see? I have reason to believe that this Titan kills other Titans and takes no interest in us! So, I have devised a plan. We need to lead this abnormal over to the supply building! Then, it might kill the Titans on the outside of the building while we resupply. Once we resupply, we can make it to the wall!” Armin stated as he stood on the chimney, laying out his plan for the other cadets. However, from the other cadet’s faces. It would seem that they weren’t buying it. Armin’s face suddenly became a bit sad as he realized that the other cadets would not follow his plan. They needed to work as a team to make this work!

“Armin is right.” Mikasa stated, drawing the attention of the other cadets as they looked at her. “This abnormal clearly only targets Titans. If we can lead it to the supply building, we’ll be able to make it back to the wall. So would you rather sit here and wait for the Titans to kill you all, hopeless and distraught, or would you rather take a chance that could lead to all of us getting home?” Mikasa stated, before going to the edge of the roof, and standing on it. Her body facing towards the rest of them.

“I will not let my death be in vain. I will follow Armin’s plan! If you wish to die a horrible and hopeless death at the hands of Titans, then stay here. However, I am strong. Much stronger than all of you. I will not let myself die as a hopeless husk. We will live. _I_ will live. I do not care if the rest of you follow. This is the separation between the cowards and the soldiers. I will fight and I will die as a soldier.” Mikasa stated. Before her and Armin jumped off of the roof and started to maneuver over in the direction of the Titan.

Most of the cadets staid in silence, however, Jean stood up.

“Well, what the hell are you waiting for? You wanna die here as a coward, or live and get to see your families again?! I know that I’m going to live!” He yelled. Suddenly, the other cadets got up and yelled in a blaze of glory. They would not die here! As they all jumped off of the roof, they started to follow Mikasa and Armin. As Armin looked back, he suddenly saw the cadets following him... and he smiled.


	8. Dancing with Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With a strategy in mind, Armin attempts to enact his plan to lead the strange abnormal Titan to the supply building to kill the other Titans surrounding it. However, when the Titan starts to exhibit some strange behaviors, Armin starts to wonder what exactly this Titan is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for a longer wait for this one! I had a splitting headache yesterday and was only able to write about a 3rd of the chapter! However, I was able to finish it today!

Air blew in the face of Armin Arlert as he soared through the air, letting his 3D maneuver gear guide him as he chased after what could best be described as a monster. It's humongous body was so large compared to the young cadet's body. It was like he was nothing but an ant to it. An ant, scurrying hurriedly around an anthill. He wondered if that's why it stared at him so. Perhaps it was just like a child staring into an anthill, using a stick to poke into it and watching all of the ants come spilling out. Armin was incredibly intrigued by it. The way it acted, the way it stared at him, and especially how it was able to rip and tear flesh so easily. For most Titans, the skin was incredibly tough and it would take serrated blades to even cut into it. But this Titan was able rip another Titan in half with relative ease. It made him wonder why it was so strong compared to other Titans. Why was it so strong? There was nothing unique looking about it except for it's strange facial features. But it wasn't like Titans with teeth outside of the mouth were unheard of. It was certainly possible and there have been multiple reports of Titans like that. However, what was incredibly intriguing to him was that this Titan didn't have some kind of body deformity other than having teeth outside of it's mouth. Most Titans had some kind of body deformity, whether it having elongated arms, an emaciated form, shorter legs, or having a skinny body. But this Titan... had none of that. It had a 6 pack, was extremely muscular looking. It was thin and fit looking, but it's proportions completely matched with a human's body. Save for the lack of... a certain part. But all Titans lacked that. So why was this Titan so unique? Why did it kill Titans instead of humans? There were so many questions Armin had about it, and not enough answers. As he continued to race towards it, all of these questions went through his mind. Armin looked to Mikasa beside him. Her eyes shined with a newfound resolve to survive. He didn't exactly know what she had gone through to make her resolve suddenly shine through from an entire year without Eren around, but he had a feeling that she had convinced herself that her purpose in life was to live on. For Eren's sake, and for his as well. He smiled slightly, although was a bit worried. If the others had not followed him, this plan was doomed to fail. As much as he would try and get the titan's attention, they would need a lot of help if they were going to lead it towards the supply building. However, the sound of yelling behind him caused Armin to turn his head to look behind him. His eyes widened, and a smile creeped up onto his face. They had followed him! They were going to give his plan a chance! Armin wasn't a leader, but he was going to try and pull off this plan.

"You guys! You... followed me?? Why? You guys looked at me like I was crazy!!" Armin yelled at them, asking a question. He wasn't yelling to be assertive or rude, he was just yelling because the sound of the gas was pretty loud and he wanted to make sure they could hear him. But he was utterly dumbfounded. Why did they follow him? Was it because of Mikasa's speech? It's certainly possible, but no amount of inspirational speeches could get people to throw away their lives like this, right? Armin was currently unaware that a certain commander of the scouts does exactly that. On the regular.

"I was GONNA stay there, but it looked like Connie was about to run off and follow you. In case your plan actually DOES work, I can't have that idiot living longer than me!" Jean yelled back with a smile. He was obviously trying to play off the fact that he was scared to die and managed to rally up the other troops. As much as Jean didn't realize it, he truly was a great leader. He didn't ever really notice it or acknowledge it, but he was good at giving orders and managing to rally up troops. He didn't know why all of the other troops suddenly followed him after he stated that statement earlier, but he thought that they just didn't want to die. He was unaware that it was actually his leadership qualities that caused the other cadets to follow him.

"Hey! You know damn well that you wanted to go as much as I did! You just didn't want to look bad!" Connie replied with a sneer, his normally jokey demeanor replaced with slight panic as he followed the others. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead from anxiety. He was very nervous, especially because he was essentially going to be right up next to an extremely dangerous Titan.

"I just followed because I knew you guys would hoard all the good food to yourselves!" Sasha exclaimed, replying to Armin rather than anyone else. Sasha knew that if she died here, all of the others would hoard all of the good food! And more importantly, how would she eat as a ghost?! It would just phase through her! And if she died, how would she get to see her friends again? Like Connie, Jean, Armin, and Mikasa? She didn't want to leave them or lose them. As good as food was, her friends mattered more. No amount of food could be traded for a human life, especially for one of her friends.

"Well, it doesn't matter why you guys are here, I suppose. I'm just glad you guys are. Be ready. We're approaching the Titan." Armin stated in warning before landing on a roof near where the Titan was at. It was currently roaming around. It was looking for something. More Titans, perhaps? It's plausible that was what it wanted. Especially considering Mikasa said she saw it eat the Titans as well. It didn't just kill them, it ate them too. The other cadets also landed on the roof next to Armin.

"Ugh... look at it. Have you ever seen a more disgusting-looking Titan? Look at it's teeth." Jean muttered out. After looking at the Titan, Jean seemed to notice how weird it looked. He thought it was disgusting. Despite it being mostly humanoid, the face was just so... weird. It had those weird, pointed ears, and those teeth. It was drooling.

"Careful Jean! The Titan might hear you with those big ears!" Connie whisper-exclaimed in a joking manner. He knew that it probably couldn't, which was the joke. The obviously Titan didn't care, it was a Titan, anyways. It probably couldn't even hear him make such an amazing joke. Jean quickly let out a chuckle at Connie's attempt at a joke. Despite how funny Connie probably thought he was, it really wasn't that funny. But Jean still somehow chuckled anyways. How could he chuckle at such an obnoxious, stupid joke? The human sense of humor sure is strange. Suddenly, though, Armin turned back and put a finger to his mouth, making a shushing sound, basically demanding that Jean and Connie keep quiet and quit joking around. They needed to be quiet at first to make this plan work. Once the two of them heard the shushing noise, they quickly got back into place, Connie's face still contorted in a silent laugh from his corny joke. Suddenly, Armin raised his swords above his head. He put them together in a kind of X shape, and then started banging them together. **CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!** The sound kept repeating. To most of the cadets, they were completely unaware of what Armin was doing. He looked insane. Why was he clanging his swords above his head?? Jean couldn't fathom it, and neither could Connie. Had Armin gone insane from seeing his friends die and now has finally lost it? Is he going to bring them all down together? While the other cadets looked on in shock, Bertholdt suddenly realized exactly what Armin was doing. It was actually a certified military tactic. Back in the cadet corps, Bertholdt and the other cadets had to do exams about military tactics and strategies that were used in a number of situations. He reflected back to a certain moment, when Armin and him had been studying together for an upcoming exam. Armin had told him that the thing that both of them needed to study was a certain uncommon tactic among the military. The clanging of the 3D maneuver blades together. It was actually to attract a Titan's attention. Due to most of the military not wanting to be noticed by Titans, this tactic was rarely used. But in certain situations of either self-sacrifice or an attempt to lure a Titan into a trap, the tactic is necessary to be used. Bertholdt was actually surprised he remembered. It seemed like such an insignificant tactic. But it would seem that Armin remembered. It would make sense, considering the boy is nothing short of a tactical genius.

"Hey! Big guy! Look!" Armin yelled out as well as clanged his swords together. The titan's attention seemed to actually be grabbed. He could see those strange pointed ears of the Titan perk up at the sound of the clanging. He wondered what it was about the clanging noises that made Titans so attracted to them. Perhaps it was loud and distracting, and it made their attention center on to the loudest thing in the area. Perhaps that is how they find prey. Their ears are rather large but they don't seem to have eardrums, or a skeleton for that matter, so the fact that they can hear is very perplexing. But then again, everything about Titans was perplexing. As Armin looked at the Titan and watched it's head turn around, those big, glowing green eyes staring at him, he could get the idea that this big guy was about to charge. If they staid here they would probably be crushed. He wondered why it wanted to charge. Maybe it was like a bull when something moves. Any sort of repetitive movement ticks them off and causes them to charge. It certainly was a theory, but he didn't have time to ponder whether or not movement causes a Titan to charge at something. Armin suddenly turned his head around to look at the others. He was still banging his swords together. "Alright! Go, now! Head towards the supply building! Lead the Titan there! If you bang your swords together he may go faster, so leave that job to me!!" Armin yelled, watching as Mikasa nodded and motioned for the cadets to follow her. The cadets quickly jumped off of the roof, starting to make their way to the supply building using their 3D maneuver gear. As the Titan started moving, Armin jumped off of the roof and started to head towards the supply building as well, continuing to bang his swords together. "Alright, come on big guy! Come on! You like the swords, right?!" He yelled back as the Titan started running. _'Oh shit, it's faster than I expected.'_ Armin thought as he increased his speed. Man, this thing was fast. He wondered if he would be able to keep up. Hopefully he wouldn't get crushed.

Eren had been looking for more of the big ones, but he just couldn't seem to find any more! The feeling hunger gnawed at his nonexistent stomach. Although he doesn't have a stomach, somehow whenever he saw a big one, he just couldn’t help himself. The anger, rage, and hunger he felt when looking at one always overwhelmed all of his senses. As drool dribbled down from his mouth, he let out a low, rumbling growl. It rumbled throughout his whole body. He was going to soon move on to a new location to look for more big ones, however, he soon heard a small ‘clank’ noise. Then another. His ears perked up. Attempting to find out where the noise was coming from. A huff of steam came out from his mouth as he started to move his head to look around for the source of the noise. The clanking noise continued. It got louder.

 _‘Bang! Bang! Bang bang! What is the banging noise? What is the click click? Look for the click click noise! Must find the click click!’_ Eren’s thoughts told him. He wanted to find the click-click noise too. He wanted to find whatever was making the click-click noise and he wanted to inspect it carefully. As Eren’s head finally turned around in the direction that the noise was coming from, he heard a small, familiar noise. Wait... was that noise... it was! It was important yellow hair little one! As Eren stared at Armin in surprise and curiosity, he suddenly noticed the ‘Big one kill sticks’ that important yellow hair little one was holding. The big one kill sticks touched eachother and made a ‘clank’ noise. Important yellow hair little one was making the click click noise?! Could all little ones do this? No, he has only seen important yellow hair little one do it. _‘Look at important yellow hair little one! The click click noise! Click click! Get the click click noise sticks! How is important yellow hair little one doing this?! It must be the click click sticks! Get them! Get them!’_ His voices urged him to get the click click sticks. He wanted to make the click click noise too! Eren started to make a noise out of his mouth. It was somewhat of a surprise to Armin, who was currently flying through the air, as Eren had started to run off after him, a **‘THUMP’** noise with every step.

“cccccCCCKKKKK!!! Ccckkkk!! CKKKK CKKK! Ccccckckkkk!” Eren attempted to vocalize. The noise he was making actually sounded more like an extremely loud chittering. Something similar to the sound that a raccoon might make.

Armin looked at this with shock. He had never thought that a Titan could make that type of noise. Wait a minute... was it trying to mimic him? The noises it was making.. was it trying to mimic the sound of the blades clattering together? This Titan just got stranger by the minute, but this was.... huge. It was most likely the first ever time that a Titan has been observed trying to mimic the noises of something. No, Armin can’t jump to conclusions, perhaps this Titan had a deformity around it’s vocal chords, after all, all Titans had them. Perhaps it could make this noise because of it’s deformity. But Armin didn’t have the time. He needed to get this Titan to the supply building.

“Good job, big guy! Keep on coming! That’s it!” Armin yelled in an ‘encouragement’. It’s not like the Titan could understand him, but Armin had a theory that making noise made the Titan continue following him. Armin continued going forwards, soon realizing that he had caught up with the other cadets. This isn’t good. They could all be in danger if the Titan decided to lunge at them. Armin looked at the other cadets, and soon noticed that there was one running on the ground. They had run out of gas. He only saw them momentarily, but his eyes widened once he saw that the big Titan in front of him stepped on to the cadet on the ground. It was clear. There was blood all over it’s foot. It’s like blood had just exploded onto the foot. But he didn’t think that the Titan purposefully targeted the cadet. It was too distracted by his blades to care. That’s what he thought, but nothing could say for certain. Leading this Titan toward the supply building was like a violent dance. A dance of death. One wrong move and he was dead.

Once Armin saw that they were coming out near the clearing near the supply building, he yelled “Disperse! Go in all different directions! Get to the building!” He needed to get the Titan to move its attention away from himself and to go after the other Titans. He stopped clanking the blades, and suddenly used his 3D maneuver gear to make a sharp turn right. He looked over to Mikasa, who had went in the same direction he did. He gave her a nervous smile. He could only hope this plan would work. But for right now, he needed to head to the supply building. He needed to get inside.

Eren was so close to getting the click click! He wanted it so bad! He wanted to make the click click noise! Why was important yellow hair little one moving away from him? He helped the little one earlier! He wants the click click noises that the important yellow hair little one makes! Eren was so caught up in the clicking of the blades that he didn’t even notice that he stepped on a cadet and crushed them. Blood had splattered all over his right foot as he continued to run towards the important yellow hair little one. However, he soon noticed that there was a loud yell noise and then all of the little ones that he had seen were gone! Where did all of the little ones go? As he looked around, his eyes soon locked onto a big one. There were so many big ones. Hunger bubbled up in his body. Steam started to escape from his mouth as his eyes locked on to his target. Rage filled his body. _‘Kill! Kill! Eat! Eat the big one! Devour the flesh! Devour! Kill! Eat! You’re so hungry! You know you want to! Big one is bad! Kill and eat big one!’_ The voices screamed. Eren let out a loud roar as he charged towards a big one that was much smaller than he was. He swiftly picked it up, ignoring it’s struggles against his grip. Opening his large jaw as large as it could go, Eren lined up the smaller big one’s nape with his teeth. Then he bit down. The smaller big one’s head slid down his throat as he quickly swallowed it. However, he wasn’t done yet. With Titan blood staining his teeth and the inside of his mouth, he took the remainder of the smaller big one’s body and swallowed the rest of it whole. Since he bit down on the nape, it was dead. He let out a rumbling growl as he started to go after the other Titans.

Armin and Mikasa bursted through the windows of the supply building, as well as the rest of the cadets. As they all landed inside the building, Mikasa’s attention was brought away from the inside of the building when she heard thumping from outside. She looked outside to see the Titan they had lured here. It was eating a smaller Titan. However... the way that it ate it... It brought back memories of that day. That day 5 years ago. The day where everything had changed.


	9. Strength

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After successfully getting to the armory, Armin and the other cadets struggle to come up with a plan to get to the supply room after figuring out it is filled with Titans. Meanwhile, Eren continues his rampage, and the cadets continue to notice the titan’s strange behaviors.

Shallow breaths echoed around the supply building. There were many things in those breaths. Fear, anxiousness, excitement, exhaustion, there were so many different feelings among the cadets. They had done it. They had survived their dance with death, at least, most of them had. Those who got eaten by Titans on the way there, or even crushed by the Titan they were trying to lead here, were gone. That is how this world worked. You either get lucky and live, or die. As helpful as skill could be, it was all ever down to luck. Those who were lucky enough were the ones to survive. The ones who made it to the supply building were the lucky ones. They were determined to be the ones to survive. However, at any moment, their luck could run out. There was no telling when they could suddenly be grabbed, or be crushed. It was only up to the blessing of Lady Luck, or god, or whoever was out there determining the fates of these young cadets, whether they would live or die. To Armin, the discovery of this abnormal Titan was a nothing less than a blessing from God. Was god taking pity on him? On them all? What was so different about these cadets compared to the many scouts and civilians killed by the Titans? Why was this Titan not there on that day? Why has it just decided to appear now? Armin had so many questions rushing through his mind, and yet there were no answers. He was not a religious person at all, but hell, the fact that this brute showed up might just ignite some faith in that heart of his. It was too coincidental. It felt 'too' perfect. Of course, this Titan wasn't perfect and it was still an animal in its own right. It wasn't a saint. Far from it, actually. Although it does go after those gigantic brutes, it clearly doesn't have any value in human life, from it crushing that soldier earlier. So it made him wonder why exactly it saved him. What was special about himself? Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but it didn't seem like a coincidence. Why would it wait for him to come out? It saved him. It did it intentionally. It waited for him to come out of the stomach, and it stared at him afterwards. Everything about this thing was just... strange. Why was it so... different? He wanted to know, but there were no answers in sight for him. This Titan was so brutal in its method of killing, that it obviously isn't killing just from hunger or for sustenance. Like all Titans, it was killing to simply bring an end to something. However, the fact that it was so unbelievably brutal when it did it... it felt like it was genuinely angry. It was angry at them. It wanted to kill them because it hated them. It reminded him of how Eren used to act, and how he used to constantly talk about how awful the Titans were, and how he wanted to kill all of them. Armin quickly pushed the thought away. That was an insult to his friend. He would never allow himself to compare his friend to such a monstrous Titan. That was an insult to the memory of Eren. Armin's thoughts were quickly interrupted when he heard a voice break the silence.

"Hey Armin. That was some pretty good leading back there. I didn't think you had it in you." Reiner remarked as he walked up to Armin. Reiner was not the smartest of the bunch, but he certainly wasn't dumb either, and he could sense a good leader when he sees one. Armin's cheeks slightly went red from embarrassment about the whole thing.

"Really? I'm not used to being a leader. I just strategize. Jean's the better leader, in my opinion." Armin stated nervously in a response to Reiner. Armin really wasn't a good leader, at least he didn't think so. He was good at making plans, but it was really up to other people to put them into action. Although Armin did give orders this time, he was really just stating the plan. It was obviously someone else that got the soldiers to rally and follow him. At this point, he was fairly certain Jean was the one that did that.

"Jean? You serious? No, Armin. You're the one who put this plan into action. If it wasn't for you and your batshit crazy plans, I'm pretty sure the rest of us wouldn't have made it out of there alive. You've really stepped it up." Reiner stated. Reiner had taken an observation, though. It was as if Armin was trying to play two people at once. The strategist, and the headstrong leader. He wondered if it had anything to do with the disappearance of Eren. Reiner didn't really ever mention Eren that much. None of the cadets did. Sure, they knew the guy. A lot of them have been through many experiences with the guy. Especially Reiner and Bertholdt, and that one night where Eren, himself, Bertholdt and Armin all took a walk into the woods where they talked about their ambitions and motivations. How him and Bertholdt wanted to return to their hometown. Of course, Armin and Eren were unaware that him and Bertholdt's hometown isn't what they think it is. They are not of these devils in the walls. They are good eldians... right? As much as Reiner wanted to admit that he hated them, he really didn't mind being around them. He didn't hate them. But he couldn't ever let himself say that out loud. The conflicting ideologies and personalities of Reiner was certainly a cause for concern among his subordinates, Bertholdt and Annie. But Reiner had noticed a change in Armin and Mikasa both when Eren disappeared. However, it was mostly in Armin, and he's noticed it even more while enacting the plan that he had devised. Armin had attempted to become a replacement for Eren. Whether for himself, to keep their friend group balanced, or for Mikasa's sake. Armin is attempting to step up into a leadership position so he can replace Eren. Eren wasn't much of a leader so much as he was a reckless idiot would would charge into anything, but he could convince others to follow him. Especially Armin and Mikasa. They would follow him through anything. But now that they are gone, it would seem that there is no one left for them to follow.

Armin was about to reply, however, a familiar voice caused his attention to divert away from Reiner. It would seem that Reiner's attention was diverted away from his own thoughts, and towards the voice as well.

"Are you kidding me?! You've been here THE WHOLE TIME?!" Jean yelled in anger as he grabbed one of the hiding supply squadron soldiers by the collar. He was fuming in anger. "You've been in here. The whole time, and didn't bother to help us?! People are dying out there because of your incompetence!!" Jean yelled at the supply squad member. The supply squad soldier's expression was that of complete shock and hopelessness. They had seen things. They were petrified. Armin watched in somewhat shock, but his anger was understandable. These supply soldiers were supposed to help the soldiers outside, but they holed up in here like cowards when the Titans started appearing and crowding around the building. However, Armin could also understand the supply soldiers and their panic. Like all the other soldiers, they did not want to die. They became scared when they saw the Titans crowd around the building and felt a feeling of hopelessness and desolation. However, before he could keep yelling, Ymir elbowed him in the side, which caused him to drop the soldier.

"How about you stop yapping before the Titans hear you and start breaking in through the windows?" Ymir stated in a harsh tone. Jean having recoiled back from the hit. Krista suddenly ran forward once seeing the somewhat 'fight' between the two. She went near the supply soldier, who was now on the ground, frozen by shock. She looked down at the soldier and then back up at Jean and Ymir.

"Please stop fighting! I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for all of this! Why don't we ask the supply soldier why they stopped providing supplies?" Krista stated, attempting to reason with both of them, before looking down at the supply soldier. She was expecting a response. She wanted to know why the soldiers had stopped providing supplies. Surely there was a reason, wasn't there? They wouldn't just abandon their duty like that without a reason. Her large blue eyes stared into the soul of the supply soldier, awaiting a response from the soldier.

"...Well, we were providing supplies! But then the door burst open! Titans got into the supply room, and we couldn't get in there. There were about 7 of them, I think! All 3 meters." The supply soldier replied, a bead of sweat going down his forehead as he continued to sit on the ground. He was still in shock. He was so scared, and he couldn't move, let alone get up on his own.

It had been a few minutes since that news hit the cadets, and all of them were in shock. They couldn't think of a plan. What were they going to do? They couldn't just refill their gas. The Titans would eat them. They would have to kill the Titans if they wanted to live, but none of them could think of a proper plan to do so. Connie paced around the room, holding his head. The gravity of the situation had hit him straight in the face, and he was somewhat panicking. Connie didn't even have a start of a plan in his head. There was nothing he could think of that would work. He wasn't good at this. Armin was the strategist but whenever he glanced over to look at him, he was seemingly lost in thought as well.

"This is just great! We're trapped in here with ravenous Titans outside, and we can't even refill our supplies because there's Titans in there too!" Connie stated out loud to himself, although it was loud enough for everyone in the room. However, Sasha soon interjected after Connie's statement with an idea of her own.

"How about we lure the Titans over to one side of the supply room, and then take turns grabbing and refilling supplies? Then we don't need to kill the Titans and we can get as many supplies as we need!" Sasha suggested, however, her statement was soon turned down from an interjection from Bertholdt. Bertholdt was also a fairly intelligent cadet, however he was usually not the one to devise plans. That honor still belonged to Armin.

"No, that wouldn't work. We need to have ample time to restock, and a few seconds to refill gas and grab swords isn't enough time. Plus, we can't even guarantee that the Titans will stay over on one side of the room." Bertholdt commented, shutting down Sasha's suggestion. She looked sad about it, but she understood. He then turned over in Armin's direction. "Armin, have you got anything yet?" He asked. But unfortunately, Armin shook his head, he was staring at a map of the building, and seemingly was still thinking about the possible outcomes, and which ones would lead them to victory. Reiner stood over Armin, looking at the plans. He was out of plan ideas as well. However, a large roaring noise from outside caused Reiner to turn his attention towards the hallway with the unbroken window. There were many cadets in the hallway.

Eren, meanwhile, was still on his rampage. Thumping and roaring noises so prevalent with every step he took, as he took out all of his hunger and anger on the big ones around him. He had just finished fighting another 15 meter, punching it straight across the jaw and consuming it's nape. He had already eaten another 3 meter, and he was still so very hungry.

 _'So many big ones. So many! So many! Kill them all! Kill them all! Eat the little big ones. Don't let them escape. Don't let any escape! You are not sleepy. It is not sleep sleep time! It is eat time! Do not let yourself get tired! It is not sleep sleep time! It is light time!’_ The voices yelled. Eren was actually getting rather tired. He could feel himself slowing down. But he can't let himself be tired! It isn't sleepy time! It is still light out! He thinks, anyways. He cannot see big heat ball today. But that is just because the fluffy sky puffs are too many! There are too many fluffy sky puffs today, so he cannot see the big heat ball. Bad fluffy sky puffs! They make it cold! The fluffy sky puffs are being mean today, because they are not letting the big heat ball warm things. Then again, Eren does not feel very cold most days. He remembers one time he did, though. It was a very strange day! He has never seen anything like it before! One day, it became light time, and there was fluffy white on the ground! It was so cold! He woke up and it was all over him. He had to shake it off. There were no stick heads in sight. They were all gone. Where did they go that day? He didn't know! But he does know that when he started to touch all of the fluffy white, it started to get small! Then it turned into wet stuff! He does not know why the fluffy white stuff did that, but he wants to see it again one day. Although it made him feel tired and he did not like how cold it was, he wants to see it again. He wants to feel it again. Back to Eren's current reality, though, he was still fighting the big ones. He picked up a 5 meter that was climbing on the building, and put his hand over it's face. Then, he dug his fingers into the top of the flesh, and started to rip the flesh. He pulled and pulled until the skin on the face of the Titan was completely ripped off and on the ground. Blood covered his hand, which quickly began to disintegrate. As the big one wandered around, blind and confused, he stuck his foot into it's mouth after knocking it down. He started to apply pressure, and even as the big one started to bite his heel, he continued up the pressure, until his foot went through the flesh of the nape and the mouth. Essentially piercing it from the inside. After the big one was dead, he let out a slight growl of satisfaction. He was about to start chowing down on it, but his body was suddenly slammed into. Another 15 meter Titan slammed into his body, his body slamming into the building behind him. Eren seemed to have been unaware of his arm placement, because his arm crashed straight through the window that led to the hallway that many cadets were stuck in. Eren's mouth started to exude a large amount of steam, however he was momentarily distracted when he heard screams and yells from inside the building. However, he didn't seem to care. He started to bite the neck of the other 15 meter, ripping off it's nape swiftly as it fell to the ground. He pulled his arm out of the broken window, not noticing that glass was sticking out of it. He moved his head to look inside. Inside there were all of the little ones he had seen before! Including important yellow hair little one! What was he doing here? The little ones looked scared. Why were they scared? They looked very sad as well. As Eren's eyes looked down to look at his hand, he noticed that there was a lot of sticky gooey red stuff on it. But it wasn't like how the big ones were! There was no steam! What was all of this gooey red stuff? Why was it all over the hallway, too?

 _'What is gooey red stuff? Is it tasty? Is it food? It looks like gooey red stuff that comes out of big ones. Big one gooey red stuff! But there is no steam! No steam! No steam! Is it tasty? Eat it! Eat it! Taste it!'_ His voices came to the conclusion that he should taste the gooey red stuff. Slowly but surely, Eren brought his blood-covered arm to his face. His jaw soon opened slightly, as a long tongue started to inch its way out of his mouth. The cadets watched in absolute horror as the Titan that just crushed their friends started to lick its arm. It started to taste the blood. After licking the gooey red stuff, Eren's tongue went back into his mouth as he gathered the taste. His expression somewhat seemed disgusted. It tasted like iron! It is not good! Bleh! This should be called the gross red gooey stuff! This did not taste like how the big one's red stuff tasted! It was gross! It tasted like a rock. After deducting that he did not like the taste, Eren looked back over inside the building at all of the little ones, before starting to walk off, looking for more Titans.

After the window had been broken and their friends crushed, the cadets could do nothing but watch in absolute horror as the Titan did what it did. It was so strange. It was like the Titan both didn't care and cared for humans at the same time. But Titans can't feel emotion! It was impossible! They shouldn't be able to, at least. The silence in the room was suddenly broken when Armin spoke up. He was shaking from the situation that just happened, but it gave him an idea.

"I've got a plan, everyone!" Armin stated, before motioning for everyone to come over. After they all crowded around him, Armin motioned at the drawing he made on the floor. "We need to split into two groups, and we'll need those guns lined up on the wall. One group of us are going to go on the elevator and form in a circle formation at the edge. We're going to lure the Titans to the center. The other group is going to hide up in the rafters from the Titans in a certain formation. Then, once the Titans get close enough, Marco will yell out a signal that we need to shoot. We shoot them in the eyes. That way they can’t see the other group. Exactly after this happens, the group on the rafters drops down and takes out the napes of the Titans. That way, all the Titans will die and we’ll be able to restock. This is a one-shot operation, so it’s either do or die.” Armin states. He looks at all of the friends around him. Annie, Marco, Mikasa, Reiner, Bertholdt, Connie, Sasha, Ymir, Jean and Krista. They all seem to agree with his plan. However, he knows he is not going to be the leader with this one. This is going to rely on Marco’s timing and the overall success of the operation. He smiled slightly as he saw the hope in the others faces. They were believing him! They could live! The others started to prepare for the plan, and once they were all ready, they set off. Those who were on the elevator grabbed a gun and started to lower down into the room. They had to make the more elite soldiers go on the rafters, after all, they were the ones who were going to kill the Titans.

As Reiner and the others who were to be on the rafters walked down the stairs, Reiner turned to Connie. His face was stoic, but he had a joke in mind that he was going to try.

“Hey Connie. Did you know that there’s actually a SECOND Titan weak spot? Yeah, if you stick a blade up their ass, it’s just like if you cut the nape!” Reiner stated. Bertholdt eyed him in slight disappointment at his inappropriate joke. But Reiner thought it was hilarious. It wasn’t exactly the time to make jokes, but it was funny in it’s own right.

“Woah, really?!” Connie stated in shock. He couldn’t believe that such an valuable piece of information was kept from them!! Why would the military not tell them that- wait a minute... Connie started to think about it. Was this a joke? He couldn’t tell.

“Pfft... I mean, yeah! The military doesn’t want you knowing because if they released that info to the public, they would go crazy!” Reiner snickered, his face was red as a stupid smile was on his face. Keep it classy, Reiner. He could hardly hold back his laughter, honestly. He couldn’t laugh because the Titans would hear him, but he was literally on the verge of bursting out laughing. Connie saw the expression on his face and suddenly looked off to the side, his face bright red from embarrassment. He couldn’t believe he fell for that! It was such a stupid joke! Why did he believe that?!

As the group reached the rafters, they all got into position. Those who were to be in the elevator started to descend into the room, guns pointed out in all directions. Those who were in the rafters staid in position until the signal was to come. It was hard staying quiet so the Titans didn’t notice them, but they seemed to manage. Reiner was worried about Connie and Sasha, though. Those two idiots might mess up, and if they do, this might end awful for all of them. As the elevator finally stopped, all of the Titans noticed the group, and started to hobble forwards pathetically. Attempting to get their way to the elevator, where all of the humans were. As the Titans got close, Marco closed one eye as he prepared to aim. The guns were pointed directly at the eyes.

“Hold on... not yet...” Marco whispered to the rest of them. It wasn’t time to shoot yet. They weren’t close enough. The Titans took another step forwards. “Not yet. Hold...” he stated, waiting for the Titans to take another step. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead as his breathing hitched. It was now or never. But he couldn’t. He had to wait for one more step. The Titans took another step, and instantly, Marco yelled “FIRE!!!” The guns went off. Gunpowder exploded around the room as each shot was done. Every shot was another shot to the titan’s eye. Blinding them for just a second longer. All of the soldiers on the rafters soon dropped down, cleanly slicing the nape off the Titan in one fell swoop. That is... except Sasha and Connie. It would seem those two were a tad bit distracted, and didn’t cut deep enough. As Sasha fell to the ground after cutting the Titan, a feeling of fear welled up in her.

“W-whoops...” she muttered out as the Titans turned around to face her. This was the end! She was gonna die here! Sasha started to scoot away, hyperventilating and panicked. That is, until she heard the whirring of 3D maneuver gear. She looked up and saw two blurs, and suddenly, the Titans were dead. Standing on top of the Titan that was going to go after Sasha was Annie. Her normally stoic face as ever.

“How about you work on your aim next time?” Annie scoffed out, Sasha soon letting out a sigh of relief and panic. The other Titan had been taken down by Mikasa, who didn’t say a word to Connie. She just stared at him for a moment before walking off of the Titan’s corpse.

“Y-yeah... I’ll do that.” Sasha mumbled out, in a dazed state. She was still in shock from this entire situation, but she realized that now all of the Titans were dead! They could refill supplies now! Sasha soon stood up and immediately headed to the gas canisters. She started filling up her gas immediately. She was so relieved!

A few minutes later, Jean was sitting on a box, adjusting his gas canisters and the blades on his maneuver gear. Jean was completely lost in thought. However, his thoughts were interrupted at the sight of Marco sitting down next to him. Jean looked over at his freckled face. He was too nice for his own good. Marco was just too nice. Why was he so worried about other people? He should be worried more about himself. Marco soon spoke up.

“You know, Jean. You’re a pretty good leader.” Marco stated as he messed with his maneuver gear, looking at Jean. Marco was genuine. He really thinks that Jean doesn’t give himself enough credit in the right areas. He’s a very good leader. At least, Marco thought so. However, when Jean heard this, he was pulled out of his work and looked at Marco.

“Really? What makes you say that?” Jean asked in shock. Did Marco really think he was a good leader? Jean honestly didn’t think he was a good leader. Sure, he was a pretty decent soldier, but it wasn’t like he was leading the survey corps, here. He was just a normal soldier, or at least an above-average one.

“Well, it’s because you’re weak. Good leaders can’t be strong, because they need to understand how the weak feel. However, you’re weak. You can understand how the weak feel and how they act. You can motivate them because you understand them. That’s at least what I think. But you’re good at inspiring others because they can understand you. After all, without you, I don’t think the cadets would have followed through with Armin’s plan. You alone were the reason that they followed. I don’t think you give yourself enough credit with that. You’re the one who caused people to follow because you have charisma and you’re weak. Being weak isn’t a bad thing, and it can work out in your favor. You just have to find what places it works.” Marco stated with a smile on his face as he looked at Jean. Before Jean had time to respond, though, he heard the sound of Armin speaking.

“Alright! Is everyone packed up? We need to go before more Titans get here! We need to retreat to the wall!” Armin yelled, to get the cadets to hear and understand him. The cadets yelled in a response, and Marco soon nodded at Jean, as if trying to say ‘think about what I said, okay?’ Jean nodded back, fixing up his equipment and flying out the window on his 3D maneuver gear. He followed the other cadets, however, he soon stopped when he saw Armin land on a roof. Landing on the roof next to him, Jean walked over to Armin and started to speak.

“Hey, Armin, why’d we stop? I thought we were getting to the wall!” He stated in somewhat of a impatient and nervous tone. He was nervous that if they stopped they’d be goners. However Armin didn’t answer verbally. He just held out his arm and pointed. The other cadets landed on the rooftops nearby as they spoke. However, when Armin pointed at something, Jean moved his head to look, and what he saw caused his eyes to widen larger than the moon. There, right there, was the large abnormal Titan that had been eating the other Titans. But right now, it wasn’t eating the other Titans. It was carrying a gigantic boulder. It shouldn’t be able to pick up such a large object, yet it can. It’s head was pressed up against the bottom of the Boulder as every step carried a heavy weight and a thump. What was it doing?! Why was it carrying a Boulder?! Jean soon watched as the Titan used its gargantuan strength to throw the Boulder at the wall. Straight at the gate. It crushed multiple large Titans. Was that what it was doing? Was it trying to crush the Titans?! But as Jean witnessed this, he looked over at the gate. His breathing seemed to almost stop. The gate was blocked. The boulder the Titan picked up and threw had plugged up the gate. No more Titans could get inside. Had they.... won? Had they sealed up the wall??

“Did we... just win back the wall...?” Jean muttered out. The other cadets stared in a similar fashion at the sight. For some reason, though, Jean didn’t see Marco. Or Annie, Reiner, or Bertholdt for that matter. Perhaps they went a different way? But that’s not what was important right now. What was important was that this Titan just plugged up the wall. However, the strangeness was soon ramped up more when Jean saw what the Titan did next. “Hold on... what’s it doing...?” He mumbled. He watched in complete confusion as the Titan started to use the supports on the wall that the garrison had set up, and its own natural strength, to start climbing up the wall. What the hell was it doing?! Why was it climbing up the wall?! It kept climbing, not caring about it almost falling multiple times, or about the sheer height of the wall. He doesn’t know why it’s able to do this. Why can it climb up the wall? As the Titan finally reached the top, it seemingly just... jumped off. What.... the hell. Jean looked over at the other cadets, who were in a similar state of absolute shock.

What had they just witnessed??


	10. The Scouts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It has been 3 days since the battle of Trost, and with the cadets claims about a strange abnormal Titan that eats other Titans, a certain Titan-obsessed section commander of the scouting legion has to attempt to figure out an explanation.

_Tap, tap, tap._ The sound of footsteps echoed down the long, abandoned corridor. There was not a soul in sight, except for the being that the steps were coming from. A young woman, seemingly in her mid-early twenties, walked down the corridor. Her brunette hair was tied in a sloppy ponytail, being held up by a pair of glasses, or some may even call them goggles, that wrapped around her head. Her pale skin reflected the light that shone through the windows. Green eyes looked downwards as she walked. Down at the thing she was holding. A clipboard. The contents of which the clipboard was holding may change things forever. This young woman was Hange Zoë, a very respected member in the scouting legion, and a squad leader. Sometimes even referred to as Commander Erwin's right hand. As such, she had much authority in the scouting legion. Not over Erwin's authority, of course, but enough so that it demanded respect from the other soldiers. Unfortunately, Hange Zoë's brilliant and tactical mind was a bit overshadowed by her... quirks. Despite being a scouting legion leader, having seen countless soldiers die by Titans, and some of her personal friends as well, she was absolutely obsessed with Titans. Some may even called it an infatuation. She adored Titans and believed they were extremely interesting, which her obsession has led to quite a few close calls where she attempts to get a closer look at an extremely dangerous creature. For as valuable of a soldier as Hange was, she always seemed insistent on throwing herself straight into danger to even get a glimpse at the monsters that she considered fascinating. That fact about her has caused quite a few conflicts with the commander himself, whom Hange occasionally has spouts with when she wants to capture a Titan, but the commander believes it to be a waste. It was just her luck that recently, she had been allowed to capture two wonderful beasties, whom she called Sawney and Beane. A 5 and 7 meter respectively. Oh, how she adored them! They were so cute! She often had to conduct tests upon them, including the ones where she had to hurt the Titans to test pain tolerance. She sobbed like a baby that day. For many, it was strange to see a soldier react that way to the very thing that kills their friends, but Hange believed that Titans were good. That they didn't kill by choice. Perhaps they did it from instinct, need, or hunger. They don't need to eat, but that doesn't mean they can't feel hunger, right? Sometimes she would kill to know what goes on inside the mind of a Titan, but with how things are going right now, it would seem that they would never understand.

As the young woman reached the door at the end of the corridor, she let out a breath of slight anxiety before she entered. She had just finished interviewing a few of the cadets that were present at the battle of Trost, 3 days ago. The explanation that they gave... was so outlandish, yet she couldn't think of anything else that would've happened. They all had the same story, too. There was no way that this was real, but the consistency with the stories was too much to be something that the cadets made up on a whim. As these thoughts entered her mind, she tried to clear them away, and enter the room. Inside the room were 3 men. The first and most noticeable man in the room was the commander himself. A large, blonde man with blue eyes, he was sitting at a large desk fitting of his status in the legion. Two other men were in the room. The first, a light-haired brunette with a slight stubble and a large nose. Miche, one of the other squad leaders in the scouting legion, and the one that Commander Erwin wholeheartedly trusted. The final person in the room was hard to miss. A short man at the height of 5'2' sat at one of the chairs at a table at the end of the room. He was holding a teacup in a rather strange way, steam still radiating off of the hot tea, signifying that this tea was still hot. Being one of the only people she had ever met with black hair, and because of his status, this man stood clearly above the rest in being noticeable. Humanity's strongest soldier, Levi Ackermann. The minute that Hange entered the room, Levi stopped sipping his tea to place the teacup back on the table. He turned around to look at her. After he did so, the other two men in the room turned to look at her as well. They looked like they were waiting for her report. They didn't say anything, but she knew that's what they wanted.

"I finished interviewing the cadets." Hange stated, looking at the commander and the two squadron leaders before looking back down at her clipboard, flipping from one page to the next, before finally getting to the final page. "But I don't think you're going to like what they told me..." Hange chuckled to herself slightly after stating that. She really wanted to tell them, but she felt like Levi was going to do something to the cadets if she did. The info the cadets gave her was so outlandish and so crazy that she was almost sure that Levi would believe that the cadets were lying and go to teach them a lesson. While she wouldn't usually have a problem with that, if the cadets are beaten senseless they may be unable to provide any more useful information on the matter. She looked up from her clipboard, her lips pursed from anxiety as a bead of sweat dripped down her forehead.

"Spit it out already." Levi snapped out at Hange. His eyes in a scowl as he looked at her. Hange remembered that Levi has been a bit more moody recently. He seems to be upset that they had to retreat from the last mission without even getting anything done. But hey, maybe this info would distract him from that. Or it might just make him more mad. It could go either way. Hange was about to reply, however was cut off by Erwin.

"Patience, Levi. Let Hange speak. I'm sure that whatever information Hange got from the cadets will explain what happened at Trost." Erwin stated almost in a scolding way to Levi, however it wasn't harsh or anything, it was something that Erwin did often when Levi got impatient or moody. Most of the soldiers would seem confused at the sight of Levi obeying Erwin's command like that and getting scolded, but even though Levi is somewhat of a lone wolf in his own right, he does rely on his squad, and he follows Erwin's commands when he gives them. After all, it was Erwin that got him here in the scouting legion.

"The cadets stated that the sole reason how they got out alive and the reason the gate got sealed was due to the actions of a, and I quote, '15 meter abnormal Titan that killed and ate other titans.'" Hange stated, looking over at Erwin and Levi, as well as Miche. Levi's scowl seemed to deepen at the sound of that news. Oh boy, this could get ugly. She had a feeling that Levi might react like this. But the sound of a Titan like this made Hange's heart flutter in excitement. If the Titan was indeed real, then this would be the discovery of a lifetime! A Titan who eats other Titans... it would be the perfect test subject! If it truly did exist, she wanted to study it. She wanted to capture it! She couldn't imagine how amazing the Titan would be, and how beautiful it would be! Not to just herself, but to humanity as well! Perhaps if this Titan did indeed exist, she could show people that Titans were more than just mindless monsters! They were more than what people said they were. They had personality! She always claimed that each Titan was unique and had a unique personality, especially with the capture of Sawney and Beane.

"Are you serious...?" Levi stated with a scowl on his face. Oh boy, he looked annoyed. "Do those brats think they're being funny?" Levi stated. He knows that Hange wasn't the kind of person to play a practical joke on such important matters, and although her obsession with Titans was a problem, she wouldn't just make stuff up like this. Especially because she wasn't even there for the battle of Trost. The scouts had arrived just after the gate was sealed. Levi got up from his chair, his scowl fading to be his normal monotone face. However, it was clear that his frustration had not faded. Levi was about to go and teach those brats a lesson in respecting their authority, however, Erwin soon stepped in. Not literally, as he was still sitting in the chair, but he intervened the situation with his words.

"Let's not make any hasty decisions. We should hear what Hange has to report first. Then we can decide for ourselves whether the information the cadets gave us is reliable or not." Erwin stated, before looking over at Hange. Erwin saw a look of slight wonder in her eyes. Perhaps Hange herself believed the stories of the cadets? She wasn't one to believe such things easily, but it would seem that she had some kind of idea that the cadets weren't lying. "Hange, what other information did the cadets give? If this story about an Abnormal Titan that kills other Titans is true, then this will be groundbreaking information for humanity." Erwin stated as he looked at Miche and Levi. Miche nodded, and Levi looked to the side for a moment. It was clear that Levi was still frustrated, and Erwin could see it clearly, even though his face was monotone. Erwin had become one of the only people able to read Levi's emotions, and he understood why he was frustrated. After all, information like this is incredibly strange, almost to the level of being fantastical. After a moment of silence, Levi went to sit at the table in the middle of the room that was clearly for meetings. Erwin got up from his desk and placed a hand on the table.

"Of course. They even gave a physical description of the Titan. In fact, a few of them went into quite the detail. I actually asked a few of them to draw a picture of the Titan. The drawings weren't perfect, of course, not everyone is an artist. But I had Moblit sketch out a picture of what the Titan looks like based on the pictures and the descriptions." She stated, before realizing that Moblit wasn't in the room with them. Did he stand outside because he didn't want to intrude? He should know better at this point. Being her right hand man, his help was invaluable. Hange went over to the door and opened it. Looking outside to see Moblit standing by the door. "Moblit, we need you in here." She stated.

"Of course, section commander!" Moblit exclaimed in a slightly panicked way. The sketch he had done was finished, but the information itself that he was presented with felt way above his pay grade. He felt like it was some kind of forbidden knowledge that he shouldn't know. But clearly the section commander didn't have a problem with him knowing it. After all, he was in the room during all of the interviews. Moblit walked in nervously, looking at all of the important faces in the room. Levi, humanity's strongest soldier. Section Commander Miche, who's nose could smell out anything. Of course, his eyes immediately fell upon the most important face in the room, Commander Erwin. Moblit saw Erwin often, as he was a member of the scouts himself, but Erwin was always so intimidating every time he saw him, especially in a setting like this, where he wasn't around anyone else except Section Commander Hange.

"Moblit, please hand me the drawings that the cadets provided and the sketch of the Titan." Hange asked politely, however it was more of an order than a request. Hange was Moblit's superior, after all. It was technically of her authority to do so, but Hange wasn't the demanding type at times like this. Especially because Moblit is such a useful assistant. She usually just had to ask and he'd do it. Mostly because she was his superior, but also because they were friends, at least, she considered themselves friends. Moblit nodded swiftly and handed her the sketches. There were about 8 of them in all, each one from a cadet she had interviewed. She quickly inspected the crude drawings, and then mentally nodded. These drawings were mostly pretty bad, except one of them was actually pretty good. From a girl named Mikasa, if she remembers correctly. The only other person she knows that has black hair, other than Levi. Hell, she even had the same kind of monotone voice and expression. Wouldn't it be crazy if those who were related? Yeah right, as if. Levi's past is more secretive than the mysteries of the Titans. "Alright, here we go." She stated, placing the drawings on the table. Erwin picked up one of the drawings, and so did Levi. Hange looked at the drawings while they were on the table.

"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said these drawings were bad. It looks like a toddler drew these." Levi commented. As he looked at the detailed sketch, his eyes seemed to widen a bit. That description of the Titan. How it looked. With those teeth outside of it's mouth, and those dark circles around it's eyes. The steam escaping out of it's mouth. Long hair. He remembers that a soldier once came back panicked on a mission after seemingly getting detoured. That soldier looked like he was going to have a heart attack. He wasn't able to listen to the soldier's frantic cries for the attention of him and the commander until after the mission. Once they had returned, he remembers the soldier coming up to him and the commander. He had been annoyed, however when he heard the soldier's recounting of an encounter with a 15 meter Titan that grabbed him and stared rather than eating him immediately, the description seemed to match this exact picture. He had originally thought that the soldier's story was just him being exhausted, however when he came to the infirmary with a severe pain in his chest later that day, they had discovered that he had multiple broken ribs. Could that guy have been telling the truth? Did he actually have an encounter with this Titan that seemingly sealed the wall during the Trost battle? Levi wondered if that could be the case, however it could all just be a coincidence. "Hold it. I recognize this Titan." Levi stated. Hange suddenly slammed her hands on the table and leaned towards Levi, the sketches flying everywhere and Moblit quickly scrambling to pick them up.

"REALLY?! What was it like?! What was it doing?!" Hange exclaimed excitedly. She wanted to know what Levi's experience was with this Titan. When did he see it? She didn't remember seeing a Titan like this on any scouting missions, after all, if she did, she would've made sure it didn't get away.

"Calm down, four-eyes. I didn't actually SEE it." Levi stated, before turning to Erwin. "Erwin, do you remember that one soldier a couple of scouting missions ago? The one that said he got grabbed by a Titan and it didn't try and eat him." Levi asked, looking at the commander as Erwin continued examining the drawings. Erwin soon looked down at Levi when he asked his question. It seemed to take a minute, but Erwin seemed to remember.

"Ah yes, I remember him. The one who got put on leave for having multiple broken ribs. I hear he's still recovering. Why do you ask?" He asked, looking down at Levi curiously, putting down the drawings that he was once holding.

"Doesn't this thing look kinda like how he described the Titan that grabbed him?" Levi stated as he handed the detailed sketch to Erwin. He remembered that the soldier described the Titan as something that he'd never seen before. With such a unique appearance that 'scared the absolute shit out of him'. The soldier didn't seem like a liar, and the soldier having multiple broken ribs seems like it adds up with his story. Which begs the question of whether or not the soldier and the cadets were actually telling the truth, and that there really was a Titan that eats and kills other Titans out there.

"You're right. It does look like how that soldier described the Titan that grabbed him. This can't be just a coincidence." Erwin stated, then turned to Hange, who has since calmed down and now looks a little disappointed that Levi hadn't actually seen the Titan, but then again, if he did, they would have already been told about it. "Hange, are any of the cadets still here? I would like to speak with one of them. I need to hear about what this Titan did for myself." Erwin stated with a determined look on his face. If the cadets had seen such a beast, then it could truly help humanity.

Hange looked over at Moblit. "Moblit, are any of the cadets still here?" She asked. They may have all left and tracking them down would be hard. She could only hope that some of the cadets remained. If they did, then it would be a blessing.

"I believe that Arlert kid is still here. I'll go get him." Moblit stated, before soon walking out the door. His footsteps echoed down the hallway as he continued to walk down. Which room was Arlert in, again? He couldn't remember. Soon however, Moblit heard the sound of tapping from down the hallway. He started to look for the door that the tapping was coming from. After a few minutes, he had found it. The tapping was coming from Arlert, who was still sitting in that chair. Perhaps he was waiting for them to come back? Maybe they had forgot to tell him that he could leave after he was done. Moblit soon opened the door. "Armin Arlert, the commander wishes to have a word with you." He stated, looking at the boy in the chair, who had perked up at the sight of Moblit.

Armin had been sitting in an uncomfortable metal chair for the past 40 minutes and at this point he was wondering if the section commander had forgotten about him. However, at the sound of a door creaking open, Arlert's head had perked up at the sight of Moblit, the section commander's assistant. At the sound of the commander wanting to see him, Armin gulped. What did he do wrong? Did they not believe him? Of course they couldn't have, seasoned soldiers who kill Titans every day could never believe that there was a Titan that killed other Titans, but what else was he supposed to say? Lying to the commanders would just get him in worse trouble. Without saying a word, Armin stood up and started to walk towards the door. His face was attempting to hide the fear but it was written clearly all over his face. Moblit didn’t pay any mind as they started to walk down the hallway. He was used to seeing fear on people’s faces. As a soldier himself, he saw it all the time. Their footsteps echoed throughout the hallway before finally stopping at a wooden door that had voices coming from the inside. Moblit opened the door and stepped inside, before awaiting for Armin to step inside as well. With sweat rolling down his face, Armin stepped inside to see three of some of the most important people in the walls. Section Commander Hange. Section Commander Miche, Levi; Humanity’s strongest soldier, and finally, his eyes moved to Commander Erwin, who was sitting at a large table in the middle of the room, Levi and Hange also sitting at the table. There was an open seat opposite from Erwin. Moblit shut the door behind Armin as he entered.

“Ah, you must be Armin Arlert. Come, have a seat.” Erwin stated, beckoning Armin to sit down. Hesitantly, Armin moved forwards and sat down in the chair opposite from Erwin. “I heard you saw quite the series of events at Trost. Care to tell me a bit more about this Abnormal Titan?” Erwin asked. He was quite intrigued by this Titan. Armin was absolutely terrified, but he knew things would get worse if he didn’t answer their questions.

“Well... where to begin. I personally didn’t see it for a while into the battle of Trost. After one of my comrades died, I fell onto one of the roofs and I just... couldn’t move. That’s when I first saw it. I didn’t even notice it, but it was obviously there for a while. It didn’t even do anything, it just watched as a different Titan picked me up and dropped me down it’s throat. I couldn’t move. I just felt paralyzed until I suddenly realized I was sliding down the throat of a Titan. Try as I might, I couldn’t claw myself out of the Titan’s mouth. I fell down into that stomach pit of that Titan, and I was sure I was going to die. Do you know the feeling of absolute desolation when you see it? That’s what it was like. It was cold and it was dark, and there were bodies everywhere. But then I just heard roaring and screaming. I watched as the abnormal Titan that I hadn’t noticed ripped the Titan that I was inside in half. I fell out with all of the stomach fluid. I don’t even know why the Titan waited until then to attack. With every other attack after that, it didn’t seem to hesitate.” Armin explained, looking at the commander. The section commander Hange seemed to have stars in her eyes as she listened to his story.

“That is very interesting. Why do you think the Titan did not immediately attack the Titan in front of you, if it did that normally?” Erwin asked, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to wrap his head around the situation. The boy had been in the belly of a Titan and lived, that was enough of an achievement on its own.

“I think it was distracted... by me. For some reason, when I fell out of the Titan, it only waited until I fell out until it killed the Titan. It was like it was waiting specifically for me. After I fell out, it killed the Titan, and then it just stared at me. I don’t know why it stared at me like that, but it just continued on it’s way after that. I already have a description of the Titan to the section commander, but this Titan was like nothing I had ever seen before. It’s features, everything about it was so strange. It didn’t even have a deformity like most Titans have, it’s body was that of a perfect human model, and it was very muscular. The only outwardly weird-looking things about it was it’s face. It’s jaw was extremely large, even by Titan standards. However, the weirdest thing about it was the way that it killed. It was brutal, much more brutal than any normal Titan was. I’m sure you all have seen extremely horrific methods of death while on your scouting missions, however the way that this Titan devoured and murdered the Titans around it was on a completely different level. It didn’t just kill efficiently, it was like the Titan /wanted/ to cause as much pain for the other Titans as possible. I saw it rip another Titan in half, put its foot in a titan’s mouth until it exploded out the back, rip the stomach open on one of the large-stomached Titans, and I also saw it pick up a 5 meter Titan and rip the flesh off of it’s face before killing and eating it.” Armin explained the situation, and Hange immediately turned to Erwin, a huge smile on her face as she had eagerness in her eyes.

“Did you hear that, Commander Erwin?! This Titan could be the proof we need to prove that Titans can feel emotion! It would be a huge asset if we were to capture it! Not to mention, who knows what kind of strange things we can discover about it!” Hange exclaimed eagerly, her eyes shining with determination.

“Pipe it down, four-eyes. The commander isn’t just going to follow your word because you can’t keep your obsession under control.” Levi stated, however, Erwin soon stood up from his chair, and looked down at Armin.

“No. I’ve decided. We are going to capture that Titan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enter the scouts! I hope I did them justice, lol. I really want to make sure these characters are as accurate as possible to the original source material.


	11. Law and Order

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Scouts are now faced with a new problem; getting the government to allow them to capture the Titan. Unfortunately, the Military Police has other plans, and wish to exterminate the Titan themselves. Now the Scouts have to fight in a game of logic, trust, and persuasion to get the court to rule in their favor. If they don’t, then the most valuable being to mankind in the past 100 years could be lost forever.

It was official. They were going to make a capture attempt on this strange abnormal Titan that was seen during the battle of Trost. Hange, personally, was extremely excited. As she sat in the meeting room, she was practically shaking from anticipation. Just from seeing the visual description of the Titan, she could tell it was a sight to behold. It was apparently a perfect human form, with no abnormalities except for it's peculiar facial features. The cadets described its actions, and how it's methods of killing didn't seem just for instinct. It was though it felt real emotion. It felt rage against the Titans. It wanted to kill them on purpose. Although rage was generally seen as a negative emotion, the fact that it seemingly felt any emotion at all was a huge step for her. If it could feel rage, then what's to say that it couldn't feel other emotions as well? Such as joy, sadness, remorse, even grief. Perhaps this could be the first recorded case of a Titan with the emotions that a human could feel. It was the next step in her plan to prove that Titans weren't what people thought they were. They had to have a reason for being here, and they couldn't be all mindless. If Hange was able to discover the origins of the Titans, and prove that they weren't all mindless, then perhaps they could convince the other regiments to begin studying Titans as well, instead of just killing them. Levi was in the corner of the room, awaiting for Erwin to return. Erwin was currently in a meeting with the council, attempting to argue for the case to capture the Titan. Levi wasn't sure if it would work or not, after all, the statement that a Titan could potentially be helpful to humanity instead of harmful was probably extremely shocking. Almost preposterous. To suggest to bring a Titan within the interior of Wall Rose and study it. Potentially endangering lives in the process. However, Erwin was a very persuasive man. If there was anyone able to persuade the council into this, it was him. Levi was surprised that he even agreed to Hange's suggestion in the first place. But if Erwin thought this was the right move, then he'd follow him. Even if he didn't necessarily think that this move was wise in the slightest. But hey, if the Titan ever went out of control, it wouldn't be too hard to just kill the damn thing, would it? They'd have it strapped down, anyways. How hard could it be to kill one 15 meter? Levi's thoughts were soon interrupted as the familiar blonde commander walked in through the door, holding the sketches of the Titan as well as a report of the findings. It had been about two days since they talked to that Arlert kid, and the scouts, in that time, had been very busy.

"Well?" Levi asked, awaiting for Erwin's answer as to what the council had stated. He didn't expect that this was going to work at all. After all, people would have to be crazy to allow the survey corps to bring a monster into the walls, especially one that was shown to be stronger than normal Titans. Levi looked over to Hange, who was practically shaking from excitement and anticipation. This was her idea in the first place. Her obsession might lead to other people being in danger. But at this point, that was just the norm for her. Erwin soon spoke up.

"The council has decided to hold a tribunal. It would seem that the military police are also aware of the Titan's existence and wish to kill it. There is going to be a trial tomorrow afternoon to decide the fate of the Titan. I expect you both to be present." Erwin stated as he looked down at the papers. Hange's excitement seemed to dull as she realized that there was a chance that the Titan would be killed without any time for her to study it. She couldn't let it be killed! This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and she couldn't just let it go to waste like that! Hange soon spoke up as she looked at the ground, her hands held together as if she was in a deep state of thought.

"We cannot just let the military police kill this Titan. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to study a Titan without it trying to eat us! For all we know, we may never find a Titan like this again. Abnormal or not, the fact that this Titan fights other Titans should be reason enough to keep it alive. We don't even know that much about it yet! How can they make such a rash decision when we don't even know how this Titan behaves?" Hange was confused. She couldn't just let the military cowards in the interior kill this Titan when they have probably never even seen a Titan before. They don't know how Titans act. Hange has seen Titans many times, and the fact that this Titan eats and kills other Titans is remarkable. She couldn't just let it die. She couldn't! Levi soon spoke up after hearing Hange's statement and the situation from Erwin.

"For once, I agree with four-eyes here. Capturing the Titan is risky, but killing it when we don't even know it's behavior is a waste. If the Titan dies before we even know how it acts, it could be a huge loss for humanity. Who knows? Perhaps the little blonde brat was right, and the Titan feels emotions. Perhaps it did intentionally save him. But we won't know if it's killed before we have a chance to find it." Levi states as he looks at Erwin. He silently sips his tea in thought. He can't believe he was standing up for the life of a monster, but he was. He agreed with Hange. They needed to see and observe this Titan for themselves before they think about whether they need to kill it or not. Besides, who's to say that it won't fight back if it believes it's life is in danger? Any animal's natural instinct is to defend itself. This Titan in particular has been witnessed to have a basic understanding of fighting styles. It has been seen punching, kicking, and even putting a Titan in a chokehold. Erwin soon replied to both of their statements.

"I know, which is why I believe that the Military Police's judgement in this situation is foolish. Although I do understand that the unknown can be dangerous, especially in this situation, we need to be able to abandon our fear to move forwards. In this situation, that means that we need to observe this Titan before we decide whether it deserves to die or not. However, our word alone is not enough to convince the judge and the military police. We need witnesses. Hange, I need you to get two cadets; Cadet Armin and Cadet Mikasa. They are key witnesses for this case. Levi, I need you to prepare for anything. If we're going to win this trial, I may say something rash in an attempt to win this in our favor. I need you to go along with whatever I say. This trial is tomorrow. I will see you both inside the courtroom." Erwin stated as he looked at both of them. Both of them stood up and saluted the commander.

"Yes sir!" They both stated, before both of them left the room to go do what the Commander had told them to do. As Erwin looked down at the papers, he walked over to his desk and sat down. He needed to make a case so they could win this.

_\- 1 Day Later -_

Today was the day of the trial. To say that Hange was nervous was an understatement. As she sat in the courtroom, there were many people. On one side, the military police and their allies, on the other, the scouts and their allies. It was like two sides of a coin. One side wanted to kill a Titan, the other wanted to study it. They couldn't be more different. Yet each knew of the Titan. Knew what it could do, knew what it had done. Hange and Levi needed to win this case, because if they didn't, the most important test subject in the history of the walls could be lost forever. The room was silent, tension present all the while as the two sides awaited for the two commanders to arrive. The tension in the air was so thick that you could cut through it with a knife, like a hot knife through butter. The sound of the opening of a door caused every head in the room to turn to the large door at the end of the room. There, standing in the doorway, were two figures. On the right was Nile Dawk, commander of the military police. On the left was Erwin Smith, commander of the scouting legion. The two regiments couldn't be more different. One staid in the interior and never dared venture out. The other journeyed outside the walls on expeditions. They were so different. That may be why they occasionally had conflicts in situations such as this. The commanders started to walk down the central aisle of the courtroom, not looking at each other or even looking at their sides of the courtroom. Once getting to their stand, they turned to their side of the courtroom and stood in front of their stand. With this notion, the booming voice of the judge echoed throughout the courtroom.

"Alright. Let's get this started." Dhalis Zachary's voice echoed out. He sat in the large chair at the end of the room, his eyes staring down at the pages beneath him. "This tribunal is being held between the Military Police and the Scout regiment. We are here to decide the fate of an abnormal Titan that was seen during the battle of Trost, and to whether it is an ally to humanity, or an enemy. Commander Nile, please present your case." Zachary stated as he looked over at the Military police section of the courtroom. Nile nodded and cleared his throat, and then looked at the papers beneath him, and then at the judge.

"We of the Military Police regiment have looked over the reports of Trost and properly interviewed the cadets present at the battle of Trost. The reports of the Titan caused skepticism at first, however from the consistency of these reports we cannot deny the existence of this Titan. From these testimonies, we have determined that this Titan is an enemy to humanity, and must be exterminated." Nile stated, as he looked at the cadets over on the scout's side. Mikasa and Armin stared back. Mikasa looked at the military police officer, and for some reason she felt a kind of anger rising up in her throat. Why was she mad? The Titan was a Titan, no matter how much it killed other Titans. However, this rage felt too familiar to her. It felt like the rage she would feel when Eren was hurt. Or when Eren was in danger. If someone hurt Eren, this was the type of rage that would bubble up in her chest. But why was she feeling it now, of all times? Was she angry that the military police wanted to execute the Titan? Why would she feel angry about that? It was a Titan. A monster, no matter how much good it did in that battle, it was still an awful beast. Why was she starting to feel the same kind of rage about that Titan with the kind of rage she feels for Eren? Mikasa tried her best to suppress these feelings. She needed to calm down. Getting heated would do no good in this situation.

"Although this Titan did plug up the wall, we have reason to believe that it did not do so intentionally. Witnesses from the battle of Trost have stated that the Titan threw the Boulder used to plug Trost at a group of Titans. This seems to suggest that the Titan was only doing so to crush the Titans, not because it wanted to help humanity. Therefore, we see no difference in this Titan from any other titan. It is killing because it wants to kill. It is doing so from instinct, nothing more, nothing less. It was simply stroke of luck that the Titan threw the boulder in the exact spot that it would plug up the wall." Nile stated, before looking at the scouts. "As a result, we see this Titan being no different from any other Titan. However, because of it's increased strength, and it's clear ability to be able to climb the wall itself, we have decided that the best course of action is to exterminate the Titan." Nile stated. He explained everything that the judge would need to believe that this Titan was just like any other Titan. But as Hange looked on at the commander, she knew that Nile was wrong. They didn't know anything about this Titan. None of them did. Zachary looked to Erwin, as if asking him to display his case as well. Erwin understood, although no words were spoken.

"We, of the scouting legion, have also interviewed many of the cadets that were witnesses to the abnormal Titan. From this information, we have decided that the best course of action is to capture and study this Titan. That is all." Erwin stated. His explanation was short, but this was all he needed. Erwin was the kind of man that could convince the jury that they were guilty of a crime when defending a client. He was persuasive, and very, very determined to do things. This was all Erwin needed to say about the topic. He trusted that his subordinates would handle the rest.

"That's it? Very well then." Zachary stated, before looking over to the cadets on the scout regiment side. "However, there is something I would like to clear up." Zachary stated, as he picked up a stack of papers and looked at one of the pages. "It says here in the official report for Trost, that the Titan 'Stepped on at least one soldier, and had crushed many others with its arm. After it had crushed the soldiers, the Titan put it's arm up to its mouth and licked the blood.' Since you were one of the main witnesses to this Titan, is this true, Cadet Arlert? I would like to hear it from one of the cadets that was present at the battle." Zachary asked Armin, who stiffened up at the sound of being asked a question. Armin looked up at the judge, then at the commander of the scouts, who had personally requested him to be here. Erwin nodded after Armin looked at him, as if telling him that it was alright. That they had this under control.

"Well, I cannot deny that a few cadets did die by the Titans hand, but-" Armin was about to finish, but he was soon interrupted by a booming voice coming from the military police's side. As the people in the courtroom all suddenly looked towards the source of the voice, it was none other than a high-ranking priest than the order of the walls, Pastor Nick.

"The argument should stop right there! The minute we bring one of those devils into gods sacred walls, the apocalypse will come! They are the root of all evil, and the notion that these soldiers even THINK about bringing one of those devils inside gods walls should be punishable! Who's to say that these soldiers aren't devils themselves!? Defending the life of a demon! It is the highest form of treason against god!" Pastor Nick shouted, pointing straight at Armin. Armin looked with fear in his eyes, he was being accused as a Devil worshipper, or as a devil himself, just because he decided to defend the life of the Titan. He believed that the Titan could be useful to humanity. They just needed to study it first. Armin wanted to speak up, but he knew he would just be silenced. However, his saving grace was from the judge himself.

"That is enough, Pastor Nick. Let Cadet Arlert finish what he was saying. Please, Cadet Arlert, continue." Zachary stated, as if a big 'back off' message to Pastor Nick to stop interrupting the trial. With that, Armin nodded and continued his testimony.

"As I was saying, it is very much true that the Titan did indeed kill cadets during the battle of Trost. However, I do not believe that it was intentional. The first death caused by the Titan was a soldier that had been stepped on in my attempt to lead the Titan to the supply building so that it could take out the Titans surrounding it. I only saw it for a split second, but the soldier was on the ground. A death sentence for anyone out on the battlefield. However, the way I saw it, I don't believe the Titan was even aware of the soldier's presence there. It was too distracted by myself to notice. Therefore, I believe that it was unintentional. The second instance of soldier's deaths caused by the Titan was when we had reached the supply building. The Titan had been fighting other Titans outside of the supply building, and it would seem that one of the other 15 meter Titans may have decided to fight back. It got slammed into the side of the building, one of it's arms going directly through one of the windows. In a hallway where many cadets were present and resting. It's arm got slammed into the building and it immediately crushed all of the cadets in the hallway. I watched with my own eyes as the Titan soon pulled away and finished off the other Titan. However, when it looked at it's arm and saw the blood, I did not see a sense of bloodlust in its eyes nor did I see hunger. I saw a sense of confusion on it's face. It tasted the blood, and walked away. It even looked back at us, in the building. But unlike a normal Titan, it did not pay any mind to us. It looked at us for a second, and then went on it's way. Therefore the deaths were not done by the Titan's own doing, nor did the Titan do so intentionally or purposefully. In fact, if anyone is to be blamed for these deaths, it should reside on myself, as I was the one who devised up and lead the plan to lead the Titan towards the supply building." Armin explained, hoping that they wouldn't think that he was crazy or something because of him saying that he believed the Titan felt confusion. The military police looked at him with a scowl, same with Pastor Nick. He looked at Armin as if he was the Devil himself.

"If I may interject, but it shouldn't matter whether or not the killings done by the Titan were intentional or not. It still ended the lives of at least 9 soldiers. Those are 9 soldiers whose families will never get to see them again. The life of a monster who ended the lives of 9 soldiers shouldn't be more valuable than the lives of those soldiers. The Titan that killed those soldiers should meet the same fate that the soldiers did. Death." Nile attempted to use a more emotional tactic in an attempt to get the judge to be persuaded to his side of things. Of course, this was just a last minute attempt, but he needed to get the judge to his side. However, Hange wasn’t having any of this. She knew that Zachary would agree with the scouts if they just presented a logical enough argument for why the Titan should live. It’s tactical value was too great for it to die. Hange decided to speak up.

“If I can object, your honor, but I believe that it is important that we don’t forget how many lives this Titan has saved. Although it had caused 9 deaths, it had saved many more. Including both Cadet Arlert and Cadet Mikasa. Both of which have had personal experiences where the Titan saved their life. Many of the cadets, in interview, have stated that if not for the Titan’s sudden appearance, the majority of them would be dead. It was only the Titans need to kill other Titans and it’s saving of Cadet Arlert and Cadet Mikasa that allowed the cadets to get out alive. If not for this Titan, we would have never taken back Trost. It’s unique strength and strange behavior made it pick up that Boulder and it plugged up Trost. It would be a waste to kill it before we can understand it’s behavior.” Hange attempted to argue, however it would seem that just made the military police more angered. They looked at her with a scowl on their faces, especially the pastor. Nile attempted to make a rebuttal.

“That, your honor, is exactly why we need to kill it. It is clearly stronger than other Titans. What if it decides to suddenly embrace its natural instincts and go after humans instead of Titans? A Titan of that strength, a Titan that knows how to climb the walls. Who’s to say it won’t come back for more? It has the strength to rip its own kind in half. What do you think it can do to a human, then? If it decides to turn on us, it could lead to the deaths of more citizens. That is why we need to kill it now, before it can do so.” Nile explained. He was attempting to argue why they should kill the Titan, and to put it simply, he was making some good points about it. They didn’t understand the Titan’s behavior. It could turn on them if they wanted. Hange didn’t have a rebuttal. However, it would seem that she didn’t have to think of one. Levi suddenly spoke up, looking straight at commander Nile.

“What makes you think you can kill it?” Levi asked, looking at Nile straight on. The tension filled the air between the two of them.

“Excuse me?!” Nile asked in shock, looking at the smaller male. He knew not to mess with Levi, though. After all, he was humanities strongest soldier.

“I said; What makes you think you can kill it?” Levi stated in a more serious tone. “The Titan knows about Titan weak spots. It was seen stepping specifically on the nape to kill Titans. It knows it’s own weak spot and it uses it to its advantage. What makes you think that you can even kill it when it’s aware of it’s own weak spot? It could be able to protect its own nape.” Levi stated as he stared straight at the judge, and then back at Nile.

“No matter if it can protect it’s nape. You can just cut the fingers off of the Titan and then cut off its nape.” Nile stated with a snarl. He clearly wasn’t having this backtalk from a captain that was technically below him.

“The Titan seems to have a basic understanding of martial arts. It knows how to punch, it knows how to kick, it even knows how to put other Titans in a chokehold. What do you think a Titan like that could do to a squad of little humans trying to kill it? No matter if it kills things intentionally or not, any animal will fight when backed into a corner and threatened. Do you think that your military police could stand a chance against a Titan that can throw a gigantic Boulder, rip its own kind in half, and knows its own weak spot? It could decimate soldiers if threatened. Especially if the soldiers going after it don’t have experience in the field. This Titan seems to have the capacity to learn. It had to have learned those fighting techniques from somewhere. That means it may even be able to learn how to go up against soldiers, especially if it’s life is in danger. Are you prepared to go up against something like that?” Levi asked, his eyes narrowed as he seemed to stare straight into Nile’s soul. A bead of sweat fell down Nile’s forehead as he stared straight at the strongest soldier that humanity has. Erwin, however, soon interrupted the tension.

“Your honor, I have a proposition. Once we capture the Titan, the Titan will be placed under Captain Levi and Section Commander Hange’s custody.” Erwin proposed, his eyes filled with determination as he stared at Zachary. Zachary looked at him and then looked at Captain Levi and Section Commander Hange.

“Interesting. Captain Levi, do you believe that you can take on such a task?” He asked with curiosity in his eyes. Levi looked up at Zachary, his face as neutral as always.

“If the Titan can learn martial arts from observation, then it can learn to submit and obey. I personally believe pain is the best teacher. Monsters are like animals. All animals, with enough discipline, can learn to follow orders.” Levi stated with a straight face, then continued. “Plus, if it gets out of hand, thenI can just kill it. It isn’t a problem for me. It’s just another Titan.” Levi stated, before crossing his arms. What Levi was saying wasn’t an understatement. He was humanity’s strongest soldier. Even with a Titan that could learn, he could kill it. Zachary seemed intrigued by this statement, and soon spoke up.

“Well, I believe that about sums up all we need to know. My verdict is clear; the scouting regiment is allowed to capture the Titan and study it. I look forwards to seeing how this plays out. Case closed. This tribunal is over.” Zachary made his statement, and then stood up. Mikasa and Armin’s eyes lit up as he walked off of the stage. It was as if hope had just come back. The victory trumpets had sounded. Erwin looked back at them, and put a hand on Armin’s shoulder. It was a silent thanks, but a sign of thanks nonetheless. He looked over to the other two. Levi had his normal face, but with a shine of gratefulness in them. Hange had the biggest smile on her face that he would ever expect to see on a traumatized soldier.

This was it. Now they could finally capture the Titan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! Sorry for such the long wait, I was very busy with stuff for the holidays and schoolwork. I am currently going to be taking a week-long hiatus for the holidays, sorry for the inconvenience. The holidays are a bit more important to me than this fanfic and I wish to have some time to relax.
> 
> EDIT; 12/30-  
> This hiatus will be extended to the 5th of January, when school starts back up for me. I’ve gotta be able to focus and school time is the most ‘focusing’ time for me.


	12. Trapping the Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is the day that the scouts have been waiting for; the day to capture the Abnormal Titan that was spotted at Trost. With Hange’s excitement and Levi still being somewhat hesitant about the situation, things all seem to be going as planned. But when Miche recalls the scent that the Titan left behind, it opens up some questions about the Titan, it’s origins, and the nature of it’s soul.

The soft clicks and huffs of the horses were drowned out by the yelling and screaming of the crowd along the reformed street of Trost. Citizens, young and old, men and women, all came to watch the departure of the scouting legion. This would be the 57th expedition outside the walls if this was a normal mission, however this was no normal mission. This mission was much more important than any sort of normal mission they have ever done. They were going to catch the large Titan that had plugged up the wall at Trost. The only problem is that they don't know where it is. Going out on expedition like this, when they don't even know the location of the thing they're looking for, is rather risky, however, Erwin had devised up a particular strategy. However, one of the main problems about this expedition was that they were short on manpower. Because of the recent expedition that happened while Trost had been under siege, they had been short on troops. But they couldn't rely on the cadets. The graduation day had been delayed for a few days and they couldn't wait any longer to get this Titan. Especially because training the cadets would take an entire month. They couldn't just send cadets out into the fray with no training. However, if this expedition was going to go the way they hoped it would, then mankind would gain the most important research subject that they have ever seen. With this, Erwin, on his white horse at the front of the scouting legion formation, thought back to how they devised this strategy.

_-FLASHBACK TO TWO DAYS AGO-_

Erwin had sat down at his desk, looking at a large sheet of paper. Around him were 3 of his most trusted advisors on matters such as this. Hange, Levi, and Miche. Miche looked down at the sheet, hand scratching his chin as he thought of how it would be possible to track such a beast. Erwin was about to speak, but the voice of Hange broke the silence.

"We need to find this Titan. Which would be no problem under normal circumstances, normal Titans usually crowd along the wall because they can sense the people in the wall. However, this Abnormal... no one has seen it since the battle of Trost. It doesn't come along the wall." Hange stated, before looking down at the paper, which had the scouting formation devised upon it. She then continued to talk. "The Garrison had agreed to help us by stationing soldiers on all of the outskirts of Wall Rose. Their job is to attempt to track and report any sight of the Titan. Unfortunately, not one of the soldiers on the outskirts have seen it. Not once. It's rather strange, because you would think that the Titan that kills other Titans would crowd along the wall with the others, because that's where all the Titans are. But it would seem that it hasn't even come within line of sight of the wall once." Hange stated, her face looking rather troubled. Anyone would be in this situation. They needed to know where the Titan was and they had no clue. Levi soon remarked on Hange's statement.

"So, you're telling me that we're going to be going on a scouting mission in two days with no idea on where the damn thing is?" Levi stated with a scowl. He didn't like this, not one bit. If they left without any idea on where it is, this could lead to the unnecessary loss of human life. He would rather not have his good soldiers die for a Titan when they might not be able to find it. "I'm going to be perfectly honest with you, this isn't a good plan. This thing could be anywhere in Wall Maria. If we deploy without any idea on where it is, this will lead to the unnecessary death of soldiers, and then we might not even be able to find it before being forced to retreat." Levi stated, sipping his tea intently as he looked up at Hange. Erwin soon put in his input, asking Miche a question, as he was going to do before Hange started speaking.

"Miche, do you believe your nose could smell out the location of the Titan?" Erwin asked, looking intently at Miche. He knew Miche had a good nose on him, and was especially good at tracking things. But considering that Miche had never smelled this Titan before, he was somewhat doubting that he could. Miche looked at Erwin, then looked down at the plan, before responding.

"Commander, with all due respect, my nose may be good, but it's not that good. I can smell Titans, and I can smell abnormals. Each have a unique scent. But I don't think my nose can tell the different between a normal abnormal and this abnormal. If it can, and I smell it out in the field, I'll let you know. But I don't know what this abnormal smells like because I wasn't there at Trost when the Abnormal was. None of us were." Miche commented, before looking down at the paper. "Although... when we did get to Trost... there was the remnants of a very... unique scent. I wasn't sure whether it was the smoke from the Titans or something else, but it may have been the remnants of the scent of that Abnormal. I'm sure if I'm able to smell it again, I'll be able to recognize it." Miche muttered with a slight uncertainty. When he had smelled that scent back at Trost, it was most prominent on the top of the wall. He wonders if it really was the scent of that Abnormal. But when he smelled it, there was some kind of tinge to it. Miche is able to smell not only people and Titans, but hidden abilities of people as well. He can sense potential. When he smelled the scent that was on the wall, something came to him. He didn't know what it was, but it felt like it was fractured. It felt like something wrong. Like whatever had that scent and left it behind had something wrong with it. It was deep and dark. Like the screaming of a lonely child in the water, trying desperately to claw for air but unable to reach it. The scent made Miche stop for a second. He felt like he smelled a scent that he shouldn't have. Unlocking some kind of gut feeling of sadness and desolation. Why did he feel that way when he smelled it? The scent made it perfectly clear. It smelled like sadness and desolation. It smelled like anger, it smelled like so many different emotions that he couldn't comprehend it. "Whatever that scent was... whatever it left behind. It feels... _wrong_. I don't know what it was about it, but it gave me the feeling like something was wrong. It had the scent of something trapped. Something fractured. I don't know if it was the abnormal or not, but whatever this scent was, it had a feeling of anger, loneliness, sadness, bloodlust. So many different things combined into a single scent, it made me want to throw up." Miche commented, his eyes wide as he placed his arms on the table, his hands clasped together as he leaned his head forwards on them. He was trying to comprehend it. It felt like he had just seen into the soul of whatever left that scent behind. It made him sick to his stomach.

Hange and Levi both looked at Miche. Hange had a surprised expression on her face, but she was concerned as well. Miche almost never got like this. He wasn't the man to get scared, or get disturbed. What did he smell? Was it that horrifying? Was it that disturbing? Did he witness the raw emotions of a Titan? More accurately, the abnormal Titan?

"Miche, are you okay?" Hange asked, but her concerns were quickly dismissed by Miche, who had nodded. But he didn't look okay. He looked like he had seen a ghost. He looked like he had seen his friends die in front of him. He seemed extremely disturbed by what he was describing. Miche was a special one. Personally, Hange didn't smell anything on top of the wall. But it would seem that Miche smelled something they couldn't, and that something deeply disturbed him. Erwin broke the silence with a statement.

"I understand. We can just hope for the best on that regard. But the problem still stands; we need to figure out a way to track this Titan." Erwin stated, looking down at the plan once again. He was stumped. They didn't have any clues to where this Titan could be located. No one had even seen it. Hange soon spoke up about the matter.

"I believe we do have one clue, though. We saw that Titan running away from the wall when we were coming back to Trost. Multiple of us saw it. I saw it as well, but I wasn't able to identify it until now because it was very fast. I was unable to get a close look. However I do remember the direction it was going in. It was heading straight in the direction of the forest of giant trees. It's possible that's where it spends most of it's time. That would explain why none of the Garrison soldiers on the walls have seen it." Hange suggested, pulling up a map and pointing to the forest, before marking on the map. "However; this isn't a guarantee. Therefore, I have an alternate plan. We know the Titan kills other Titans. Titans don't die from natural things out in the world. Therefore, I believe we should devise a system. If a Titan corpse is spotted, the soldier fires up an orange flare. Then Erwin shoots a flare in the direction of the orange flare, and the formation moves. If another Titan corpse is spotted, then we move to that one. If the Titan itself is spotted, a purple flare is fired. If it is only hunting around a certain area, then we should be able to pinpoint it's location." Hange stated, before circling the giant trees on the map. Levi looked at the plan intently.

"Well that's all well and good, but we still need to capture the thing. Like I stated in the trial, we can't go at it with force. It could retaliate. I could take it out myself, but I would rather not have four-eyes over here cry because her test subject dies." Levi stated, sipping his tea as he looked at Hange. Erwin soon replied.

"Indeed, although this test subject is incredibly important to humanity, if soldiers die because of it, we may just have to kill it. But I believe if we take the Titan by surprise by hiding the capture guns in the trees, we may just be able to capture it without a single casualty." Erwin said, before standing up and adjusting the stack of sketch papers that the cadets and Moblit had provided. "We also need to make sure that every soldier knows what this Titan looks like. It is imperative that we be alerted if the Titan itself is spotted. Hange, I'm going to need you to give this sketch to Moblit, and have the soldiers convene tomorrow. This sketch will be passed around to each and every soldier so that each of them knows what this Titan looks like. Therefore we can reduce the chances of a false alarm, or a soldier not being able to tell the Titan apart from other Titans." Erwin commanded, giving the sketch to Hange. She nodded, and Erwin looked down to Levi and the others. "With that, I believe that this method may allow us to pinpoint the location of the Titan. You three are all dismissed. We will begin the expedition in two days." Erwin stated, and with that, the group had dispersed.

_-PRESENT-_

With the plan in his mind, Erwin looked at the gate in front of him. The scouts behind him awaiting the orders from their commander. As Erwin looked up at the wall, he recollected in his head. Everything he's doing this for. His dream. He must retake back the wall so he can see the outside of the walls. He will prove his father's theory to be right, he just needs to take back the wall. With his dream in mind, a surge of resolve filled Erwin's heart.

"SOLDIERS!!!" Erwin yelled, "THIS IS THE 57TH EXPEDITION OUTSIDE THE WALLS!! FOR HUMANITY, WE CHARGE! FOR HUMANITY, WE FLY! FOR HUMANITY, WE DIE!!!" Erwin yelled, the resolve in his voice as he continued his speech. He didn't even look back to the soldiers. "SOLDIERS, GIVE YOUR HEARTS AND YOUR LIVES FOR HUMANITY!!" Erwin exclaimed. Erwin has the amount of charisma and persuasiveness to fuel an army, and this is extremely clear at the moment, especially because of his speech. As the gate slowly opened, Erwin made one final statement. "WE WILL FIGHT, AND WE WILL DIE FOR THE CAUSE!! NOW, CHARGE!!" He yelled, his horse racing through the gate. The soldiers cheering and shouting along with the commander as the soldiers started to spill out of the gate. They followed the commander without a second thought. This is because many of the scouts here are veterans that have survived many of the other expeditions. They had seen hell, and lived. The fear in their hearts was temporarily forgotten about because of the commander's speech. Levi and Hange looked at each other momentarily before nodding, Hange had a smile on her face. She was extremely excited, but she couldn't forget about the danger that they would face. She had to keep herself alert, and so did Levi. With that, they all set off into the Titan territory of wall Maria.

About 10 minutes in, Hange couldn't help but notice the amount of houses that were around. It made her sad to think that this place once housed so many people five years ago. It was home to families, children. Many of these people lost their lives due to the Titans that broke through wall Maria, the Colossal and Armored Titans. One day she would love to be able to study one of them, but it was strange, the Colossal seems to be able to disappear into thin air, and the Armored Titan hasn't been seen for 5 years. She wondered how such unique Titans are able to stay hidden. Perhaps there is more to them than meets the eye. But unfortunately, the chance she would ever encounter either is extremely slim. Then again, Hange isn't the one to be out in the outskirts of the scouting position. She is usually in the center, with Erwin. Same with Levi and his squad tailing behind them and Miche. As they got farther out into the wall, Erwin held out his arm to the side.

"ASSUME LONG RANGE SCOUTING FORMATION!!!" Erwin commanded. Many of the scouts then started to branch off into different directions. Some, mostly the supply carts and the 15 meter long cart to hold the Titan, were in the center. The large 15 meter long cart had to be pulled by 6 horses, and it was still trailing behind the others in the center, but that was to be expected. Those on the right side went in all different directions, some staying near the flank while others being on the front lines at the top.

One minute. Then two. No flares yet. Three minutes. Four minutes. Five minutes. Five minutes and no flares. This is slightly concerning. Usually, Titans were spotted rather quickly after the scouting formation had formed. What was going on? Why were there no Titans in sight? Hange looked to the horizon, attempting to find any sign of a flare. But none so far. However, the sound of a gun soon caused her head to jerk in the direction it came from. In the sky, right there, was a streak of orange. Orange flare, not red, right? Orange! That meant... that meant there was a Titan corpse there. Hange's eyes widened to the size of baseballs.

"Commander! Orange flare from the right!" Hange yelled, attempting to gain the Commander's attention. Erwin looked back at Hange before nodding. He grabbed a green flare gun out of the sack on his horse, and looked in the direction of the orange flare. He then shot a green flare in the direction of the orange flare. Were they that close to the forest already? Or was this an older corpse? But Titan corpses don't last long. This means that the Titan that was seen at Trost has to be nearby. There's no other possibility. After 7 minutes of riding, Commander Erwin had managed to get to the site of the corpse. It was a rather large one. Looked like a 15 meter. This couldn't be the Titan they were looking for, could it?

"Hange, is this Titan corpse the Abnormal we're looking for?" Erwin asked, still on his horse.

"It's possible. It is the same size the Abnormal is reported to be, but I need to go to the skull to check." Hange stated as she got off of her horse, running over frantically to see whether the skull was the correct shape or not. She was extremely worried and it definitely showed. She was practically shaking as she finally got to the skull. She moved the head slightly to check the jaw, and instantly, a sigh of relief escaped her lips. "No. This is a different Titan. The Abnormal we're looking for has a larger-than-average jaw and mouth, and it has more teeth. This is a normal 15 meter, still incredibly fascinating!" Hange stated as she looked at the dissolving flesh of the Titan. She somewhat wanted to stay here to just watch it dissolve.

"Alright, well if that's the case then, we need to get moving. We don't have time to make any stops, Hange. Let's go." Levi stated, calling over Hange's horse and forcefully grabbing Hange's ponytail from where she was inspecting the Titan. "Come on. We don't have time for this." Levi stated harshly.

"Alright, alright!! No need to get your panties in a twist, Levi! I'm done!" Hange whined, a bit sad that she had to leave this Titan corpse behind, but she still needed to find the Titan they were looking for. After all, she wanted to see it for herself. She got back on her horse, and started moving again, towards the forest of Giant trees.

Then there was another orange flare. Then two. Then three. Then four and five. Five orange flares, all in different places. But all of them were near the forest of Giant trees. The front left and right sides had seen them first, as they continued moving, even after the commander and the squad leader had stopped. This was clear now, their prediction was right. This is where the Titan roamed around. Hange felt so proud of herself that this actually ended up being correct, especially because this meant that they had reached the place where the Titan made it's home. Hange had a huge smile on her face.

"Commander! We did it! We've found the place where the abnormal roams! Wahooo!!!" Hange yelled excitedly, her body shaking in anticipation. She was so close. So very close to seeing the Titan for herself. She was so excited.

"Calm it down! We still have to capture the damn thing." Levi commented. He wasn't really trying to be mean moreso he was trying to keep the squad safe, after all, if a Titan heard Hange's yelling, they could all be in trouble. Levi soon noticed Miche, though. He looked at Miche and he saw the face that he saw back at the meeting two days ago. That face of fear. Of sickening disgust.

"I smell it again..." Miche muttered out. "That smell... the despair... the hunger... the rage. It's everywhere. It's all around the forest. It's all around the corpses. It's so strong..." Miche stated softly. Erwin turned back to look at Miche, Erwin's eyebrows furrowed as a look of worry was slathered on his face. He was worried for Miche. What did this mean? Why couldn't Miche stand being around here? He looked like he was about to be sick. Like if the stench for Miche was so prevalent and disgusting that it was making him nauseous. "Whatever is in there, whatever is making this stench. Something's wrong with it... it's more than just emotions. It's more than just rage or hunger. It's like this being itself is stuck in an endless cycle of pain and desolation. I... I think I'm going to be sick..." Miche muttered out before holding his mouth, trying not to throw up. Hange and Levi both flashed a worried face. What was he smelling that was apparently so disgusting to him that he was about to throw up? Miche's chest felt tight as he huffed in and out. It was like he was witnessing the raw emotions of whatever thing this stench came from. He was seeing into it's head through the smell. He couldn't describe it. It was so... just so... painful. Miche was not an emotional man, but this made him want to cry. He had never in his life smelled a scent so filled with raw, pain-filled emotions. Erwin soon ordered the squadron to go into the woods with a green flare signal, as they need to observe the Titan, and need to see where it is. The minute they got into the woods, the majority of the squads tied their horses up to an old fence post and then used their ODM gear to get onto the branches. The supply squads started to set up the capturing net equipment.

The minute that Miche had entered the forest, the scent was stronger than ever, and now he actually did think he was going to throw up. As Erwin, Hange and Levi used their ODM gear to get to the branches, Miche did not follow, instead, he held his mouth and instantly jumped off of his horse. Then, in one of the bushes by the tree, he immediately threw up. He started coughing and hacking, his face contorted in pure disgust. He was incredibly disturbed.

"Miche!!" Hange yelled in worry as she looked down at Miches situation. The minute that Hange and Levi saw this, they used the ODM gear to go back down to the ground level. They watched as he coughed. He was done throwing up, but he was clearly still incredibly disturbed. He huffed heavily, still bent over. Never in their life had they seen Miche like this. He was usually so cool-headed. One of the strongest soldiers, only second to Lieutenant Levi. Levi looked at Miche. As cold and heartless as Levi looked, he wasn't a monster. He soon grabbed a handkerchief out of his pocket, and handed it to Miche.

"Here. Use this to plug your nose. I don't know what you smell that's made you like this, but we can't have you helpless down here." He stated. Miche looked over to Levi, still huffing. He soon stopped, slowing his breathing down as he cleaned the residue off of his mouth.

"Thank you, Captain Levi. I don't particularly know what happened, myself." Miche stated, before putting the handkerchief over his nose. This was much better. Now all he smelled was the slight scent of soap that the handkerchief had. Miche couldn't use his superior sense of smell anymore for scouting, at least not at the moment, but the smell that permeates around this area is so sickening that he couldn't take it. He's thankful for Levi's help.

"You're welcome. Now pull yourself together and get up here. We're almost finished setting up the nets." Levi commented before using his ODM gear to bring himself back up onto the large branches of the trees. He stood next to Erwin. Erwin soon turned towards him.

"What's going on down there?" He asked, looking at Levi intently, with a slightly worried look on his face for Miche.

"It would seem that Miche can smell the Abnormal, or at least the smell the Abnormal leaves behind, and he got so sickened by it that he actually threw up. None of us can smell it, but he can. I gave him a handkerchief to plug his nose up. I don't think we're going to be able to use his ability right now, but he should be fine now." Levi explained. It was quite a lengthy explanation, but Erwin was a man who liked details, so Levi gave the details to Erwin. Miche had now used his ODM gear to join the others, and was standing on one of the branches with Hange.

"When I could smell the Abnormal, the most prominent area was coming from deeper in the forest. It was getting closer." Miche stated to Hange. Miche looked slightly worried. Whatever this thing was, all of those emotions that he smelled in the scent it left behind were carried along with it. A bead of sweat went down his forehead. What kind of beast roamed these forests? Why did he feel emotions when he smelled the scent it left behind? He didn't know, and frankly, it scared him. He had never known a Titan to have any sort of emotion, but he had felt so many present when he smelled it.

A thump came from the woods. Then another, and then two more. Hange's face seemed to light up with a smile and she breathed shakily in anticipation. Erwin looked to his soldiers, and motioned them to hide in the leaves of the trees. He wasn't sure whether this Titan knew they were here or not. The only visible soldier now was Erwin, pressed up against a tree trunk, awaiting for the Titan to come into view and into the right position. Finally, the thumping got louder, and more frequent. Out of the leaves of some of the other trees came a large, 15 meter Titan. The very same abnormal that plugged up the hole at Trost. A steam bellowed out of it's mouth as it let out a growl. Hange wanted to watch, but she had to stay hidden. It frustrated her. She wanted to see it! It was right there... she knew it was right there. She wanted to see if the sketches and description that the cadets provided her was accurate or not. If this Titan was as amazing as they described it as being.

Eren, meanwhile, had been wandering throughout the woods. He had been roaming around these woods for a year, and he knew his way around. The grass was crushed beneath his feet as he walked step by step. Something felt off, at least that's what he thought, but maybe it was a bad feeling. A wrong feeling. Eren's pointed ears seemed to perk up when he heard the shuffling of the little green things that were all over the big tall brown sticks. That was strange. He almost never heard them. He was too tall to hear them, usually. Green, primal-looking eyes that adorned an equally vicious and primal-looking face looked around intently. He noticed some of the stick beasts galloping below him, disturbed by something in the woods, most likely himself.

 _'What is wrong? This is strange. It feels bad. You should not be here. It feels wrong. Go! Run away. Run away fast! It is not safe here! There is something in the big brown sticks. There are things there. Is it a big one? It might be a big one! You should go look! Go look! Go look!'_ His voices started contradicting each other once again, and was stuck between two choices. Either go check to see if the rustle noises are a big one, or run away, because the voices say that there is something bad there. Steam huffed out of his mouth between his teeth in a swift puff. He decided that he should go look, after all, it might be a big one. Maybe big ones can climb the big brown sticks! He has never seen one do it, but maybe they can! Just like how that important yellow hair little one couldn't fight against the big one, when little ones always fight against big ones! That's why he likes the little ones. Especially the tiny little one, because tiny little one kills the most big ones. Eren looked down an opening in the woods, at the end of the opening, he saw some of the 'Clop-Clop' beasts that he sees the little ones in green riding. He wants to touch a Clop-Clop! He has never touched one before! He's never even gotten close! They weren't moving, maybe he could touch it! Eren decided that he wanted to touch the Clop-Clops. He started to walk his way towards the Clop-Clops, but something in his mind told him that this was wrong and that he shouldn't be here. Something bad was here. But Eren decided to ignore it. He kept moving forwards. Just as he was about to get to the Clop-Clops, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He swiftly turned his head to see, but at this point, it was too late.

"FIRE!!!!!!" Erwin yelled. Suddenly, the net guns fired, firing hundreds of needle-like harpoons into his skin. The pain was instant and it caused Eren to roar loudly, his mouth opened up extremely wide. The roar was almost deafening, and it echoed throughout the forest. Eren tried to move, tried to do anything to escape the pain that he was feeling right now! He tried, but he couldn't move a muscle other than his face. He tried twitching his fingers, anything! Anything at all! But no, he couldn't move. Eren's eyes darted around to look at the thing that yelled, his mouth was closed at this point, steam billowing out like a steam engine. It was almost a measurer of his rage. What he saw was none other than one of the little ones in green! It had yellow hair, but it wasn't yellow hair little one! Eren recalls seeing this one before, but he never gave a name to this little one. But he remembers seeing tiny little one around this little one a lot.

 _'Hurt! Hurt! Ow! It hurts! This hurts! Bad hurting! Bad! Bad hurting! Want stop! Make it stop! I want out! Want out! Want out! So many needles... so many needles... it hurts... stop it!!'_ Eren's voices screamed at him. He looked at the little one in front of him, the yellow haired one. This one should be called loud little one, because this little one is very loud. He doesn't know what's going on, why are the little ones surrounding him? Why are they hurting him?!

A squeal of joy came from Hange as she heard the roaring and the sounds of the gun firing. They must have caught it! Otherwise, they would have heard either Erwin yelling for a retreat, or hear him yelling from being caught. Carefully, with Miche behind her, Hange stepped out of the hiding area behind the guns. She wanted to see this beauty for herself! As she stepped out, she was met with a wonderful sight. The Titan was caught, it's arms stuck in place, although it seemed to be desperately trying to move them.

"Oh.... ohohohohoho~~!! Oh my... aren't you a beauty~!" Hange had blush on her face as she breathed shakily. She was incredibly excited. She started to move towards the edge of one of the branches, in an attempt to get closer to the Titan. Eren, having heard the voice of the little one that was breathing very heavily, moved his head slightly towards her direction, to look at her. His eyes looked directly at her. Those large, primal green eyes. "Oh! He noticed me!" Hange stated in somewhat surprise and shock. She bent down a bit to look at him in the eye. "Hello, big guy! How are you doing?" She asked, as if the Titan would understand her. The big thing about Hange is that she liked to talk to the Titans like they were big animals. Like if this giant, man-eating beast was just a big dog. This was especially true for this one in particular.

"Stop talking to it like it's a dog. And don't get too close, four-eyes. It can still move its mouth." Levi stated, attempting to pull Hange back. He couldn't believe that she was acting like this big lug was a dog. It was nothing more than a monster. Those eyes told him everything he needed to know. It harbored primal hunger. Primal rage. This thing was a true monster. Hange resisted Levi's pulling, looking back to the Titan.

"Levi, look at him! Isn't he the most beautiful Titan you've ever seen?! I never thought I would find such a unique specimen!" Hange stated with pride and excitement. She was REALLY happy, and it showed.

"More like the most ugly. This has to be the most disgusting mug I've ever seen on a Titan. Look at it, it's drooling everywhere because it doesn't have lips. Disgusting." Levi commented. However, he soon watched as the Titan looked directly at him. Eren's gaze moved from Hange to Levi, and he instantly recognized who that was. That was tiny little one! It's tiny little one! Tiny little one! He's always wanted to see tiny little one up close, but has never been able to, because tiny little one is so dangerous.

 _'Tiny little one! It's tiny little one! Woah! Tiny little one is the best little one! The best little one! The best! Tiny little one is so small, but is so strong! He's the strongest little one there is! Tiny little one kills all the big ones, so tiny little one is the best!'_ Eren's thoughts yelled at him. He was so excited to see tiny little one that he almost completely forgot about the fact that he was currently being stabbed with at least 100 harpoons. Eren let steam out of his mouth, a low growl coming back up out of his throat as he huffed. He stared at Levi intently. He didn't take his eyes off of him. He was so excited.

"Woah, Levi look! He's staring at you! Do you think Levi is interesting, big guy?" Hange asked, still talking as if she was talking to a toddler or some kinda dog.

"Eugh. That thing is so disgusting." He muttered out. Levi didn't want to look at it. He hated it. He couldn't understand how Hange was so fond of these things, they killed all of her friends and comrades. Levi soon watched as the Titan's harpoons clasped into place, they started to bring it down, directly into landing in the cart that was laid out below. The cart was made out of pure steel so the Titan wouldn't destroy it simply by laying on it. Eren let out a weird noise, probably the Titan equivalent of a whimper. Hange soon looked at Erwin.

"Attention! The capture mission was successful! Commence the retreat operation!!" Erwin yelled. The soldiers yelled in victory, as the captured Titan lay perfectly on the cart below. With that, Hange and Levi decided to stay with the cart and the Titan, in case Titans started running after them.

As Hange sat by the Titan, now restrained and being hurt by the hooks digging into his skin, from his body regenerating, she looked at him. The cart started to move, and the horses started to move the cart, the Titan, and the two people on top of it. Levi and Hange’s horses now helping provide extra horsepower to the cart. Eren let out a deep growl, his eyes clearly in discomfort, moving around as he slightly twitched. Hange noticed this, and started providing meaningless words of comfort.

“Aw... I’m sorry big guy, I know it hurts, but we’ll be there soon. Then you won’t have to lay in this uncomfortable cart anymore, okay?” She attempted to comfort, but Eren didn’t even know what she was saying. As Hange looked at the horizon, she smiled back at the Titan. They finally had him, and boy was it worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I’m back! I’m sorry for the unexpected extended hiatus, however I hope I made it up to you by making this chapter the longest I’ve ever written! I also felt like I didn’t give Miche enough attention in the scouts chapter, so I made him play a bigger role in this chapter.


	13. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cadets get ready and prepare themselves for graduation, and when the day comes, those among them who are ready to brave the scouting legion stay behind. However, they are immediately assigned to transport to a strange base in the outskirts of Wall Rose. Little do the cadets know that they are about to reunite with the one who saved them that day at Trost.

Sparks flied upwards from the fire pit like a swarm of fireflies ascending into the air. Or in this case, could even be represented as the souls of the departed, leaving this mortal realm to go claim their eternal peace in the afterlife. The bonfire was big, and was surrounded by barriers to keep the fire from spreading too far. Although this time, the kindling wasn't wood. No, the kindling here was bodies. Burning, rotting bodies. The smell of burnt flesh permeated throughout the air as the flesh disintegrated from the fire. It was horrid. The sight was horrid. Everything about this was just wrong. As the bonfire raged on, a few cadets sat by it, one particular Jean Kirstein sitting by it, with a hand over his mouth. He knew that his friend, Marco Bodt, was in that pile. The pile of bodies. He didn't even know how he died. No one did. No one saw him. Jean was the one to find the poor boy's corpse, half-bitten off, with his eyes looking upwards and his body stiff. Jean looked down at the ground, trying to not allow tears to spill, but he couldn't help it. The tears dribbled down his face, filled with the emotions that he had been bottling up until now.

 _'Marco... why did you have to go and die on me, stupid bastard!! I wanted to go into the military police with you there! Why did you have to die?! Why... why did the only decent person die? Why not Connie, or Sasha, or one of those other idiots?! Why you, of all people?!'_ Jean thought to himself. He didn't mean those things about Connie and Sasha, but he was caught up in the emotion of the moment. He didn't want to see that image of Marco dead anymore. But every time he closed his eyes, it flashed into his vision. He couldn't get it out of his head. Jean's muffled sobs through his hand were one of the only things audible in the quiet night, other than the breaking and crackling noises coming from the fire. The fire hurt his eyes, the smoke of it burning the eyes and causing him to blink rapidly. But it seemed he couldn't care that he was too close to the fire. He was too caught up in the spur of the moment. Jean's tears dripped on the ground beneath him, creating a small wet droplet in the dryness of the weathered pavement. _'Damnit... damnit! Why couldn't you have thought about yourself for once in your goddamn life!! You don't need to worry about other people! If you had just stopped putting up that 'selfless' act, this wouldn't have happened!!'_ Jean's thoughts told him. He wasn't actually mad at Marco. He was just angry. Angry at himself for not doing anything, or not keeping close to Marco to make sure he was safe. He missed his friend tremendously. He missed seeing him smile, and he missed how nice he was to everyone. He was such a selfless man. Maybe that's what got him killed. Maybe he died saving someone else. It would be like Marco to do that. But how he may have died doesn't change the fact that he's gone.

As Jean looked down at the ashen bones beneath him, he moved his hand away from his mouth, picking up one of the bones on the ground.

"Is this you, Marco...? I can't even tell what bones are yours anymore. Why... why did you have to leave... we were supposed to go into the military police together... remember? Why did you leave without saying goodbye...?" Jean whispered to himself, in a sad tone. It was like he wasn't talking to himself, though. It was as if he was pretending that Marco was still here, and that Marco could hear what he was asking him. Jean wanted to pretend that Marco wasn't dead, that he was just already inducted into the military police, living his best life serving the king. But Jean wasn't a fool. He knew that wouldn't solve anything. It wouldn't change the fact that Marco was dead. Pretending would do him no good. It would just make him sadder. Jean didn't really know how to cope with something like this. He's never had anyone close to him die like that, especially so suddenly. Soon enough, though, a familiar voice snapped Jean out of his thoughts.

"Jean, maybe you should take a rest- you're way too close to the fire." Christa remarked, worry in her voice as she put her hand on Jean's shoulder. Christa was upset too, everyone was, but Christa needed to make sure that no one else got hurt. Sitting that close was a one-way-ticket to going blind from the smoke's affect on the eyes. Jean had a slight scowl on his face, but he wasn't mad at Christa, he was just mad at himself.

"What does it matter, anyways? Look around, Christa. All of our friends are dead. Everyone we knew and cared about was eaten by the Titans. What are we even fighting for anymore? Justice? Survival? Glory? There is no glory in this. There's just death." Jean remarked, before turning his head back around to look at the fire, as if to tell Christa that he no longer wanted to talk. What was Jean even fighting for anymore? Normally he would've said that he wanted to keep fighting so that he could live the easy life behind the walls- but what would Marco say if he chose that option? If he didn't fight the Titans, Marco's death would be meaningless. But he never wanted to see a Titan again. Jean's mind was conflicted between the choices offered to him, to join the scouts and live up to Marco's legacy, so his death had meaning, or to live the easy life behind the walls in a hope that he would never see the Titans again. Never in his life had Jean been this conflicted about something before. It felt like his head was going to explode. What was he supposed to choose?! Jean looked to the side, however, what should've been the normal scenery was in fact Marco. A hallucination of him, specifically.

'I hope you don't get mad when I say this, but you're not that strong.' Marco had said, before continuing. 'However, that means you can understand how the weak feel. You're a great leader, Jean, and can excel in almost any situation. I hope you know that.' Marco's words echoed in Jean's mind as he stared in a saddened, shocked state at the hallucination. It made him want to cry. He knew this wasn't the real Marco, but he wanted to reach out and give him a hug. Tell him he was sorry for not being there for him. But his words would just fall on deaf ears, no one there to listen, no one there to reply. Jean knew that... but he still felt the remorse and guilt, and he still felt the urge to do so. He now knew what he had to do.

"Hey, guys." Jean stated clearly as he stood up, turning to Ymir, Christa, and Sasha, who were standing together nearby. "Have you decided what regiment you're joining yet...?" Jean asked. The look on his face was as if he wasn't expecting an answer. He wasn't expecting a reply. He was going to continue. "Well... I have." Jean stated, before putting his closed fist to his mouth as his face contorted in sadness, struggling to push out what he was trying to say. "I... I...! I'm joining the Survey Corps!!" Jean yelled out, muffled sobs coming from his throat as tears started to flow down his face. He never thought he would say that in his life. Yet here he was, joining the same regiment that he once made fun of Eren for, for wanting to join. But Eren, that suicidal maniac, was gone. So was Marco, and so many of the other people he had met during those three years of cadet training. This decision wasn't for anyone. It was for himself. Deep down he knew that he wouldn't be happy in the military police. Not while Titans devour more people and destroy more of the cities. The others remained speechless as he sobbed. They did not say a word, but they were in just as much shock as Jean himself was. Jean fell to the floor, clutching his mouth as he sobbed.

_-One Hour Later-_

As the cadets stood in front of the fire-lit stage, a feeling of tension was in the air. Everyone was tense. Everyone was either angry, sad, or couldn't care less. Jean didn't know if he had the strength to do this. But he had to keep going. He knew he had to. He couldn't turn tail like a coward and run. He had to be strong. Suddenly, footsteps rang out as a man in a standard military outfit stepped onto the center of the stage. It was incredibly clear who this person was; Erwin Smith. His large eyebrows and striking blue eyes staring into the soul of each and every cadet. Suddenly, his booming and somewhat charismatic voice rang out through the silent night.

"I am Erwin Smith, Commander of the Survey Corps. Today, you will choose a military branch. To put bluntly, I'm here to convince you to join the survey corps." Erwin stated. Many of the cadets in the crowd immediately stopped listening at that point. They had already made their decision. They believed that only idiots would join the regiment where you are almost certain to die horribly at the hands of Titans. However, Erwin paid this no mind, and continued. "During the Titan battle, you learned how terrifying they can be. And how limited your own power is. However... because of the results of this battle, humanity is closer to victory than it ever has been before." Erwin stated, before swallowing slightly in hesitation. This was supposed to be private information, but the survey corps desperately needed new cadets. If these cadets were to not be convinced, then they may have a season where no cadets whatsoever joined the survey corps. Erwin soon continued. "We have captured the abnormal Titan that plugged up the wall. It is in our custody. With this Titan's assistance, not only did we stop the Titan advance, but we have a new hope for humanity as well. We plan to use this Titan to plug up Wall Maria and reclaim our lost land from the Titans." Erwin continued. A gasp rang out from the audience, did they really capture the Titan that plugged up the wall?

"We believe that not only can this Titan plug up the wall, but it is a valuable research subject, and may even allow us to find out the true nature of the Titans. If we can discover the secrets of the Titans, we may find out a way to eliminate them from this world once and for all." Erwin stated. Armin looked on in shock, he couldn't believe Erwin was publicizing this information! The military tribunal was a private event, so no one knew that the expedition outside the walls was actually the capture the Titan. What was Erwin's gain from this? Why was he doing this? "In these past four years. 60 percent of the scouting legion have lost their lives. I expect that for those who wish to join the scouting legion, in four years, most of you will be dead. However, for those who survive, they will be hardened into superior soldiers with a high survival rate. Knowing these discouraging facts, any who wish to stay remain here. If you wish to join other regiments, you are free to leave. That is all." Erwin finished, his resolve astounding, it poured from him like a fountain. It was like he was a man without equal. A man with no fear. A soldier willing to sacrifice it all for the cause.

With that, many of the cadets left at the scene started to turn back and leave. However, some remained. They stood their ground, they didn't let up. As hard as it was. Many of them trembling, shaking from fear, from standing their ground in the face of death. Death was directly in front of them, and they were staying right here. They wouldn't move. Armin looked to Mikasa, sweat dripping down his forehead. But he knew that this was the right decision. He had to live on. For Eren's sake. Mikasa stood in place next to Armin, she knew that this is what she had to do. She wouldn't leave. Eren's legacy would live on in their hearts and their actions. Armin and Mikasa looked at eachother, and nodded to each other. They were in a mutual agreement. As the dust cleared and the cadets left, the remaining cadets were standing tall and proud. Mikasa, Armin, Christa, Ymir, Connie, Sasha, Jean, Reiner, Bertholdt. All stood their ground. Erwin had a small smile on his face.

"Welcome to the scouting legion, cadets. I already have orders for you. In two days you are being shipped out to the outskirts of wall rose, to our base there. You are dismissed." He stated, before walking off the stage. A sigh of slight panic came from Armin's chest as he struggled to deal with the reality of the situation. That they were here, and they were finally going to live on Eren's legacy.

_-Two days later-_

The ride to the southwest outskirts of Wall Rose was a long, boring ride. Although, he did like sightseeing with the others along the way, seeing houses and paths, and seeing villages too. It would appear that the scouting legion's base is very far out in the outskirts of Wall Rose. Perhaps it is because it's easier to access the gates that way so they can set out on expeditions. That must be the case. As they finally stopped, though, Armin woke up with a jolt. A slight groan came from his throat. He felt groggy and was very, very tired at the moment. He wished he didn't have to sleep on a hard wooden cart that bumped every so often. Armin rubbed his eyes as he looked up at the sight before him. It was a large building. Was this a castle? It looked like one. Armin soon realized that he was the only one up. Everyone else except the driver was still sleeping. To his left, Reiner was asleep, leaned onto the side like he was relaxing, but he was actually asleep. Armin could tell. Armin poked Reiner again and again, attempting to wake him up.

"Hey, Reiner. Get up, we're here." Armin stated, not caring how loud he was because the more people that got up, the better. It would seem that it was dawn now. He was actually in awe at the building before him. It was very beautifully designed, although it wasn't built by the scouting legion. It had obviously been here for a long time, and it had some wear and tear on it. Reiner soon awoke with a large yawn, his eyes fluttering open and closed tiredly as he looked at Armin, starting to speak in a slightly slurred and tired voice.

"Huh...? Are we here?" Reiner asked, before turning to Bertholdt, who was next to him. "Hey, Bertholdt. Wake up, we're here." He stated, although he noticed that Bertholdt was in an incredibly weird position. One leg was over the side of the wagon and the other was stretched out to the other side, his arms crossed together. Reiner knew that Bertholdt often slept like this, and like most people he found it rather strange. Reiner looked to the cart behind them, which was holding all of the luggage that they had brought. Every soldier was allowed to bring a few personal items, and the necessities, as they were going to be living here for the time being. Reiner looked over to the castle, before having the sun glare in his face. Reiner let out a grunt before covering his eyes with his arm. Man, the sun was bright today. Bertholdt soon awoke as well, and because of the noise made by Armin and Reiner, all of the other cadets also awoke. Connie woke up for about a minute, but he soon went back to sleep, passing out again.

Reiner jumped out of the carriage, as it had now stopped, and Armin and the others soon followed, Connie being dragged by Sasha, as Connie seems to just refuse to wake up. While the cadets were staring in awe at the castle, the voice of the carriage driver soon spoke up.

"Well, we're here. Grab your stuff out from the other cart and bring it inside. I'll show you guys to the barracks." The carriage driver stated, getting off of the cart, before gesturing to the cart. The cadets instantly grabbed what little luggage they had and started off towards their rooms inside the base. However, on the way there, Armin noticed someone. He stopped for a moment at the sight of her. Was that.... section commander Hange? What was she doing here? The instructions that commander Erwin gave them never mentioned that she was here. It shouldn't matter, but for some reason his curiosity was digging into his sense of better judgement. He was going to resist, though. Straying from the others could just get him in trouble. He was about to leave and go follow the others when he was stopped by Hange's voice ringing out from another room.

"Good morning! How are you today? I hope you're doing good!" Hange's voice rang out. Instantly, Armin's head snapped back over in the direction of where the voice came from. He couldn't help but be extremely curious about it. After all, he didn't even hear a reply come from anyone else, and yet Hange continued talking as if whatever she was talking to was responding, even though he didn't hear anything. Armin knew he probably shouldn't pry, but the curiosity in his mind was just getting too intense for him to bear. He needed to see what or who she was talking to. The way she was talking was really weird, too. She was talking in a 'puppy voice', as if she was talking to a cute animal and trying to give it affection. The thought of a tough and veteran soldier like Hange being so affectionate towards an animal made him crack a small smile. It was nice to see that even traumatized, veteran soldiers could still find some sort of joy in their life. As Armin turned the corner to attempt to spy on Commander Hange, he was soon confused to find there was no cute animal there.

Armin stepped out from behind the corner. "Section Commandee Hange, what are you doing?" He asked, his head tilting slightly, before Hange seemed to whip around in shock in an instant, hand on a pocketknife in her pocket. Armin soon backed up a bit. Okay this was a bad idea, he should've just left her alone.

"I'm sorry, Commander Hange! I didn't mean to intrude on anything! I'll leave now-" Armin apologized, before starting to walk off. That is until he felt a hand grab his shirt, instantly he looked back to see Hange with a wide smile on her face.

"Nonsense! I didn't recognize you at first which is why I was jumpy, but now that you're here, this is the perfect timing! Come, I need to introduce you to someone special!" Hange beckoned him, leading to around the next corner, in a fenced area. No... Armin almost couldn't believe the sight. His eyes were as wide as baseballs as he stared at the gargantuan giant in front of him. It was that Titan. The one that plugged up the wall, the one that saved him. He couldn't believe it. Of course he knew that they had captured the Titan! Erwin explained that during his speech, however he didn't know that Erwin was shipping them to the Titan's holding grounds! What was his gain?! He was sending new recruits to a place inhabited by one of the strongest Titans that have ever been observed! It was a giant not to be messed with, especially considering what he saw it do to cadets in the battle of Trost. Armin turned his head towards Hange, looking at her. Hange had a huge smile on her face as she looked at the lumbering giant in front of her. The Titan was much bigger than he remembered, maybe it was because he was so close. The Titan's nose was about the size of his entire body, that's how massive it was.

"Isn't he just beautiful?! Hello big boy! Good morning!" She stated cheerfully, before turning to Armin. She pointed at the Titan's eyelids, which were half-shut. "You see that? He's still tired. The sun has been up for about 20 minutes now, but it seems he's still tired! He's been like this every morning since we got him a couple of days ago. I wonder why it takes longer for him to wake up?" Hange questioned, looking at the Titan, who was laying on the ground. It was much easier for the Titan to be transported and studied when it was laying down, especially a Titan of this size.

"Maybe he's not a morning person." Armin stated in an attempt at humor to mask the sheer terror he felt right now. He was close to a gigantic monster that he saw accidentally murder many of his comrades. Yet somehow he couldn't forget that look it gave him when it saved him... familiarity. Why did it know him? Why did it look at him like that? He wanted to know, but the Titan wasn't going to speak. It was a Titan, after all. Hange let out a small chuckle at that comment.

"Maybe. He's good at going to sleep, though. Not all Titans do it easily. Titans never close their eyes when they sleep, but you can always tell when they're sleeping. It's like a snake. Snakes don't have eyelids but you can always tell when they're sleeping because they stay in the same place and don't move. It's the same with Titans." Hange stated, looking at the Titan in front of her. She smiled at him, before smiling at Armin. However, she soon watched as the Titan in front of her blinked it's eyes slowly, it's pupil's starting to move around as it started to let out steam. A deep grumble came from it's throat. Hange seemed nowhere near threatened by it, though. "Oh! He's awake! Hello! Good morning big guy!" Hange stated happily, her hands clasping together in happiness as she looked at the Titan in front of her.

Eren felt his consciousness return to his body, after a long period of not moving. It had been sleepy dark dark time, and when it's sleepy dark dark time, he has to lay down and go to sleep. He gets so tired when it's not light time that he just has to. For the past few days, Eren has been stuck at this facility, strapped down. He always saw the little ones hustling and bustling all over the place. What were they doing? He wanted to see. But he couldn't see, because he was stuck laying down like this. The harpoons that they had dug into his skin were still very much present and still very much painful. His body had regenerated around the harpoons, so now they were basically just a bunch of ropes sticking into his skin, with the harpoon embedded deep in his muscle. It still hurt, but it hurt less now. He didn't move that much, and that was probably a good thing. If he moved, the harpoons would probably dig into his muscle more, and he didn't like that. It hurt.

Every day, Eren would be visited by a strange little one with glass on her face. She would say something that he couldn't understand, and then she would get way too close to his body. She would do things like poke him or say more things that he couldn't understand. Eren named this little one 'Strange little one' because strange little one is very strange and is very loud when he does things like look at her. One time, he got mad at strange little one because she poked him in the eye. He growled at her. He didn't like it when she did that and he wanted her to stop. Strange little one is also usually accompanied by another little one who writes things. This little one is 'Writer little one' and he yells when strange little one gets close to himself. Eren thought that these little ones were strange. However, he occasionally saw tiny little one! Tiny little one sometimes came by to talk to strange little one, and one time, Eren was so excited by tiny little one that he started huffing out steam! But tiny little one didn’t like that and he stuck something sharp in Eren’s face. That made him get mad at tiny little one for a little bit, but after a day he forgot about it. Now, he had awoken to see strange little one saying weird things as usual, but then he saw a familiar face! Yellow hair little one! He looked straight at yellow hair little one, steam starting to huff out of his mouth.

 _‘Yellow hair little one! Yellow hair little one! Why is yellow hair little one here?! I don’t know! I don’t know! I want to talk to yellow hair little one! Yellow hair little one is very nice. Yellow hair little one will never hurt you! He is a good little one! Yes! A good little one!’_ Eren’s thoughts told him. As he stared at yellow hair little one, he was completely unaware that he was staring at his dear old friend, Armin.

“Wow! Look at him! He must really be interested in you, Arlert!” Hange stated excitedly. “I’ve never gotten him to be this focused on me. He usually looks up at the sky or the ground. He never looks directly at me like that! He did the same thing with Levi too, when we first found him. I wonder why?” Hange pondered. But Armin was in the middle of something else. As he looked in the face of his previous savior, a somewhat of a fondness feeling came over him.

“So we meet again. It’s been a while since Trost, hasn’t it?” Armin stated, talking to the Titan as if it could understand him. But as Armin looked at the Titan, he couldn’t help but look back down at the ground in contemplation. “That day... why did you save me that day...?” He muttered silently, the answers so far out of reach and yet somehow simultaneously right in front of him. But forever out of his grasp, for now. Perhaps one day, he may find the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! Once again, sorry for taking so long. I just got back to school and things have been a bit hectic.


	14. A Girl Without Her World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ever since Eren’s disappearance, Mikasa Ackermann’s life has been a whirlwind of regret and grief, and is struggling to find a purpose in life. As a new member of the scouts, though, Mikasa is tasked with helping a certain Section Commander out with her experiments, and is surprised when she sees exactly what is the subject of these experiments. However, as Mikasa helps out with the experiment, she begins to put doubt on whether or not Titans are all monsters or not, and an internal battle between her attachment to Eren and his beliefs and her own doubts ensues.

_'Ring! Ring-Ding-Ding!'_ The bell chimed, the small ball inside the bell rapidly hitting the inside walls of the bell, signaling a movement that allowed for the vibrations to make a distinct chiming noise. For soldiers, this sound was all-too-familiar. Even rookie soldiers like the 104th cadet corps knew that this sound meant the start of a new day. That it was time to wake up. Soldiers who were efficient enough to make a time schedule for themselves to wake up were most likely already up by now, but for rookie soldiers, this bell was their only saving grace in the morning that allowed them to wake up and not get in trouble for sleeping in. The sound of muffled groans of unhappiness started to surface as the young soldiers grunted and groaned due to being tired. But that was an everyday thing, most people weren't efficient morning people, even soldiers sometimes.

"Wake up, recruits! You all have work to do! I'm not going to ring this bell twice, so you better get up!" The stern voice of one of the other, older scouts yelled as they rang the bell furiously. This was when a certain young woman's eyes opened. Deep, dark, black eyes, with hardly any semblance of emotion in them. For anyone who knew her, it was all too clear who this was; Mikasa Ackermann. Slightly messy and unkept chin-length black hair covered her field of view, as she had a serious bedhead at the moment. Which was somewhat strange, because unlike most people, Mikasa almost never had a bedhead. Was she unrestful last night? She hardly ever moved, usually. Despite the frequent night-terrors that she experienced, she usually never flinched or moved a muscle during the night. Perhaps it was due to being in a new location, after all, they had only gotten here yesterday, and she had not even gotten a feel for how to navigate around the building. The majority of the day prior consisted of them moving their belongings to the barracks, eating, and then being instructed to go to sleep. However she did recall seeing Armin get scolded by one of the officers for wandering off, after he had seemingly been gone for about 2 hours. However it would seem that the section commander Hange Zoë provided an alibi, saying that he was helping her with an experiment. That seemed to be good enough for the officer, so the officer let it go. Mikasa arose from her bedside, shaking her head slightly in an attempt to rouse herself up from her sleep. She looked down at the bunk below her, as the majority of the beds in the barracks were bunk-beds. As she looked down, she noticed the person on the bottom bunk below her, Sasha, was still sleeping. She seemed to be a rather heavy sleeper, as she was not at all phased by the sound of the bell and was still sleeping soundly in her bed, drool dribbling down from her open mouth. A small smile was on her face. It would seem that she was dreaming, at least that's what Mikasa gathered by looking at her. What was she dreaming about? Probably food, or something along those lines. The reason that Mikasa thought that was because of the drool coming down from her mouth and the smile on her face. Mikasa climbed down the ladder, her face blank as usual as she looked at Sasha in the bed.

Should she bother waking Sasha up? There was no real reason that she had to. She could just let Sasha sleep in, but then Sasha would get in trouble and most likely have to do extra work. Sasha was a friend, as much as Mikasa didn't really express it. Mikasa looked down at Sasha and slowly bent down, putting her hand on Sasha's shoulder and starting to lightly shake her.

"Sasha, wake up." Mikasa stated quietly in her usual monotone voice. She continued to shake Sasha, but Sasha wasn't responding. The only thing that Sasha did was let out a slight groan and try and swat Mikasa away. "Sasha." Mikasa said again, a bit louder this time, attempting to get Sasha's attention and for her to wake up from her deep slumber. If she refused once again, Mikasa was just going to leave her be. At that point, it was essentially Sasha's own fault for not waking up, even after Mikasa had been assisting her. Sasha's brown eyes soon opened with a groan, squinting as she looked at Mikasa.

"Mmrgh... Mikasa...?" Sasha muttered out as she yawned, rubbing her eyes tiredly as her unkept brown hair got in her face. "Is it time to wake up already?" She asked with clear discomfort in her voice. But at that point, Mikasa knew that she had woken up, and she didn't need to do anything else. Mikasa nodded, but didn't say a word. Soon enough, she walked off, contented with the fact that Sasha had now woken up and was no longer in risk of getting punished because of her inability to wake up on time. However, Mikasa wasn't going to make this a daily thing. If Sasha wasn't able to wake up on her own, then Mikasa wasn't going to wake her up every day. She needed to be able to wake up on time. However, waking up Sasha reminded Mikasa of when she used to wake up Eren every day as a child. He would always oversleep and Mikasa would have to wake him up every day to avoid getting in trouble by his mother. She would always do the daily chores with him that his mother had assigned to both of them. Thinking about it made her nostalgic, but also somewhat sad, because she knew that she would never get to have those moments again. Not only because their home was destroyed and Eren's mother dead, but also because Eren himself was gone. Without him, those moments were not the same. But as far as Mikasa could tell, there was nothing she could do about it now. If she were to needlessly get herself killed out there to be reunited with Eren, should he be dead, then her memories of him will disappear, and Eren's presence in this world will be gone. Armin will be left with the grief of both of them, and she's not sure if Armin could get by without both of them here to support each other. They had already lost Eren, losing herself would just make things worse.

Fixing herself up for the day, brushing her hair and getting herself dressed, she turned to the corner where she saw the red scarf that she always wore hanging upon her bedside. Right where she left it. To her, this red scarf was Eren's presence. It symbolized Eren, and it had her fond memories of her and Eren imbued within it. She wore it every day, no matter what the attire. Over time, it's color had faded, with it's material getting looser and less stable. After all, she did wear it in battle. But Mikasa would keep wearing this scarf until she was unable to anymore, either her being physically unable to wear it, or it being so worn that it hardly counts as a scarf anymore. Her brown boots clacked upon the ground as she walked over to the scarf, gently picking it up with both of her hands. She felt the fabric beneath her fingers, the scarf running through both of her hands as she rubbed her thumb across it. A small smile adorned her face as she looked down at it.

"Thank you, Eren..." she muttered softly to herself, as if talking to a being that wasn't there, thanking Eren for the scarf when he wasn't present. This gesture was supposed to be her thanking Eren for it, even though he wasn't there, he was there in spirit. It felt like when she wore this scarf, that she was with Eren again. She could still remember his smile, his laugh, his voice. It felt like such a distant memory to her, as if she hadn't seen him in 10 years, although it had really only been a year. She missed seeing him happy, as rare as it usually was due to his temperamental personality. But that just made it all the more sweet when he was happy. Unfortunately, something had happened to Eren. Someone had done something to him and now he wasn't here with them. It left a hole in Mikasa's heart that even the fond memories of this scarf wasn't able to heal. Mikasa looked down fondly at the scarf before wrapping it around her neck gently, as to not damage it. Once it was around her neck, Mikasa moved her head slightly to put the side of her cheek on the scarf. It was her way of coping with the loss of Eren. She closed her eyes, imagining that Eren was still here with her, imagining that she was hearing his voice from across the room telling her to hurry up. Imagining his face, and what he might look like now. After all, a year is a time for many changes, and who knows what Eren would look like now, if he was still here. But if she knew Eren, she doubted much would change. Eren was a boy who was very passionate about his goals, ideals, and almost every other aspect of his life. He wasn't a person to change easily. Mikasa remembered that clearly. Opening her eyes slowly, and moving her head back to where her cheek wasn't touching the scarf, Mikasa turned towards the door and walked out to the common area, where the other recruits had lined up to receive their orders for the day.

"Alright, today we will be dividing you all into groups. Each group will have specific tasks to do, so make sure that you do not deviate from your specified tasks." The officer started, before continuing. "Alright, so-" The officer stated as he pulled out a list. "Springer, Braus, you two are on cleaning duty. Report to Commander Levi to pick up your supplies." The officer stated as he gestured to both of the two cadets.

"Really...?" Sasha muttered under her breath, a look of disappointment on her and Connie's faces, but still somewhat happy because the two of them were assigned together in the same group. Mikasa looked at both of them, and could somewhat sympathize. Cleaning duty was the worst duty to be put on, at least that's what most of the older scouts said. That's because Captain Levi is a neat freak, and if he doesn't seem your work satisfactory enough, he will make you do it again. However it was a duty like everything else, and someone had to do it.

"Hoover, Ymir, you both will be on weapons and ODM maintenance duty. Head to the armory directly after this meeting is finished. Be sure to bring your ODM gear and your blades." The officer stated. Ymir and Bertholdt both looked at eachother, somewhat indifferent about the pair. However, Mikasa noticed that Ymir was looking at Krista. She seemed upset that she was not paired with Krista. Which Mikasa noticed easily because Ymir was often around Krista at almost all hours of the day. Mikasa was pulled from her thoughts, though, when the officer spoke once again. "Braun and Lenz, both of you are to be tending to the horses today. Be sure to go immediately to the stables after we conclude this meeting." The officer stated with a slight sigh, as if he really didn't want to be here. "Why am I stuck giving orders to the newbies...?" The officer muttered out under his breath, before finally finishing what he was going to say. "And finally, Kirstein, Arlert, and Ackermann. All three of you are to be assisting with section commander Hange's experiments today. She does not like waiting, so don't dawdle." The officer stated, before finally continuing. "With that, you are all dismissed." He stated, before walking off.

Mikasa looked to her side, seeing the other cadets start to leave to do their tasks. Connie and Sasha, both with a slightly disappointed expression, but it would seem that both of them were happy that they were paired with each other. Ymir and Bertholdt didn't even look at each other as they walked off, going their separate ways to get their ODM gear before heading to the armory. Looking at Reiner and Krista, Reiner seemed to have a big smile on his face. He was clearly very happy about being paired up with Krista, the two walked away towards the stables, Reiner attempting to make passing banter with Krista that had the smallest hint of flirting in it. As if Reiner was trying to flirt, but was trying to be 'modest' about it. Mikasa didn't exactly understand, but she supposed it wasn't her business anyways.

"Hey, Armin." Jean stated, directing his speech at Armin, looking at him as the three started to walk to the 'research' ground.

"Yeah?" Armin replied, looking back up at Jean.

"So, we're helping the Section Commander with 'Experiments'. You were with her yesterday, right? What kind of experiments is she doing? I don't want to have to do something like swallow some kind of experimental liquid and get sick." Jean asked, commenting about how he really didn't want to have to do something that could compromise his own safety, or have to do some kind of weird tests. Armin looked at Jean, but he didn't really reply with a straight answer. Mikasa noticed this, he seemed somewhat anxious. What did Armin do yesterday, and why was he so hesitant to explain what the experiments were about? Was it something confidential?

"No, no, nothing like that. I... think it'd honestly be better for you if you just saw it for yourself." Armin stated anxiously, he visually had sweat rolling down his forehead, his eyes were wide as he had a somewhat forced smile on his face.

"You're nervous, Armin. Why?" Mikasa asked. Her voice seemed to drag both of their attention to her. It would seem that they were surprised that she was talking, because she had been relatively silent for the majority of the time. "Is there something you don't want us to know?" Mikasa asked in a more serious tone, as if trying to somewhat encourage Armin to tell them what he was so nervous about, but it actually just looked like she was trying to intimidate him more than anything, which honestly wasn't her intention here.

"Yeah, why are you nervous, Armin?" Jean questioned in suspicion of Armin. Jean wanted to know what Armin was hiding, just like how Mikasa did.

"No, it's not like that! I mean, it's just somewhat hard to explain. That's all. I'm just a bit nervous because the section commander can be a bit... overbearing, if you know what I mean. You won't really get what I'm talking about until you actually meet her." Armin tried to explain, sweat dripping down his face. Armin was simply nervous because he realized that the other recruits didn't know that the Titan was here. The one that they saw in Trost. He didn't know why the commander didn't tell them that the Titan was here. And more importantly, why send new recruits to a place with a dangerous Titan? That's what Armin really wanted to know. "Looks like we'll have to cut this conversation short anyways, since we're here." Armin stated, before exiting out of the building through the back door. The instant he did so, the group was met with a sight that was all too familiar to all of them, the large Titan that they had seen at Trost was laying on the ground, forcefully strapped down by harpoons and wires. Mikasa's eyes widened somewhat at the sight. She couldn't believe that it was here. Sure the commander had stated that they had caught it, but she didn't think that she was actually in the same area as it. She was staring straight into the devilish face that she saw that day. That face that relished in tearing into Titan flesh. She still couldn't believe that it was actually real. The whole situation. The Titan having saved her from almost certain death due to it's hunger and ferocity. It having saved Armin as well, it seemed to be so unreal. From it's strange appearance to it's even stranger actions.

"Holy shit." Jean stated out loud, saying what they were pretty much all thinking. The sound of Jean's voice caused a certain section commander to whip around from where she was standing, looking straight at Jean.

"Ah! I was wondering when you three would show up! Come, come! We have a lot to do today!" Hange exclaimed excitedly, beckoning the other two over to the Titan. Reluctantly, the others moved over to where the Titan was. Jean looked incredibly uncomfortable about being this close to it. Mikasa looked at the Titan intently. Now that she got closer, she started to notice it's strange features even more. Like the dark circles around it's eyes, and it's primal green eyes. Those eyes... they made her uncomfortable. Mikasa looked away for a moment, unable to stare at them any longer. They reminded her of something, and she didn't like it. She didn't want to look at them. Those primal green eyes radiated sadness, and a feeling of loneliness. It was somewhat sickening to think about. But how could this be? Titans didn't have emotions. After all, they were just monsters. No matter how much good this Titan did, with saving lives and eating other Titans; it was still just that. A Titan. A monster. It was still a monster, she had to remind herself of this.

"Meet our very special guest! I know you've already seen him before, but this is a formal introduction!" Hange yelled excitedly, getting close to the Titan in front of her, way too close for it to be safe.

"Section Commander! Please move back! That's dangerous!" Moblit yelled, worry in his voice for his commander. Hange soon turned around with a smile on her face.

"Nonsense! This big guy won't hurt me! I've been much closer before, he doesn't seem to mind." Hange said, before turning back around, still standing close to the Titan. "Aaaannyways, I'm sure you three want to know what kind of experiments you'll be helping out with today." Hange stated before looking back at the Titan. "Today we're going to be doing a number of experiments. Most of which are to test this big boy's behaviors and his reactions to certain situations." Hange stated as she pulled out a chalkboard on wheels that she had handy for this precise moment. Jean soon interrupted, however.

"Uh, Section Commander? How are we supposed to test for reactions if 'Big Boy' over here doesn't have emotions?" Jean asked, his tone somewhat snarky, but Hange didn't seem to mind.

"Excellent question, Kirstein! To put it simply, we don't know if the big guy over here has emotions or not, but we have managed to figure out that he is not oblivious and he reacts to things. For example-" Hange stopped, before grabbing Armin hastily and putting him opposite to her. Armin was standing to the left of the Titan, while Hange was standing to the right. "We have been able to prove that he plays favorites." Hange explained, before starting her explanation once again. "Look here. If you look closely, you can see that Armin here has grabbed complete attention of the big guy. We don't know why, but big guy here has an interest in Armin in particular. And if I move in front of him..." Hange stated before moving in front of Armin. Instantly, the Titan in front of her started to attempt to move his head slightly. A deep growl came out of his throat as his eyes started to look around. "As you can see, he's looking for Armin. He has no interest in me, but he wants to see Armin. We don't know why he likes Armin so much, but it's part of the reason why I requested for Armin to be out here with the rest of you. It makes sure that he's paying attention to what we're doing." Hange stated with a smile, before gesturing that Armin could go back to where he was before. Slightly frazzled due to being so close to that Titan, Armin went back next to Jean.

"Man, you weren't kidding when you said she was overbearing... talk about a complete wacko." Jean whispered to Armin, although it was loud enough for Mikasa to hear.

"Indeed." Replied Mikasa, looking at the sight in front of her. She slightly adjusted her scarf a bit.

"Alright! Time for our first test!" Hange stated excitedly. "Our first test is going to be a test on whether the Titan reacts to human conflict. Mikasa, Jean, I'm going to need you to stand opposite from each other around 8 feet in front of him. Jean, you're going to pretend to bump into Mikasa, and then you two are going to pretend to get into a verbal fight. It can get physical if you really need it to, though. As long as no one breaks any bones, physical fighting is completely fine. Alright! Get into positions!" Hange stated, clapping her hands together as the two got into position.

 _'Oh god... why'd it have to be Mikasa....? Why couldn't I go up against Armin? I'm going to get my bones destroyed...'_ Jean thought, before putting up a false smile and soon pretending to bump into Mikasa. "Hey! Watch where you're going, moron!" Jean started, attempting to play the scene correctly. Jean really, really didn't like doing this though, especially because he was basically insulting Mikasa, although it was just a script! It wasn't real. Yeah, it wasn't real.

"You watch where you're going." Mikasa replied, her voice intimidating and monotone, Jean could feel a shiver go up his spine. Mikasa wasn't just any normal human. She was much above anyone else Jean had even known. The only one that she wasn't above was most likely Captain Levi himself. Jean swallowed his fear and attempted to make a comeback.

"This ain't my fault! You're the one who was paying more attention to that raggedy-ass scarf than walking!" Jean yelled, but soon enough, he felt a sharp punch hit his stomach. A wheeze escaping out of his mouth. He had been swiftly punched by Mikasa, who obviously took that fake comment personally, her eyes were filled with anger. The same anger she would feel when someone tried to hurt Eren. Because in her mind, that scarf was the remainders of Eren. It was all she had left of him. She swiftly swept her feet under his legs, in which Jean promptly fell straight backwards and landed on his back.

"Jean! Mikasa!" Armin yelled in worry, suddenly breaking his formation that was out of view to go and check up on his hurt friend, and his other friend, who was more than just a little angry. "Hey, let's all calm down. I'm sure that Jean didn't mean what he said, it was all part of the act-" Armin was soon cut off by a strange sound coming from the direction of the Titan. It was a 'Chuff' sound. A chuffing sound that was repeating over and over again. It was getting more frequent. Armin slowly looked over to the Titan, there he saw steam bellowing out of it's mouth in a multitude of rhythmic chuffs, it's body moving up and down and slightly convulsing to the rhythm of the chuffing sound. It... sort of looked like it was... laughing...??

"Woah! Woah! Hold it! What's he doing!? Moblit! Hurry, Hurry! Document what he's doing!" Hange exclaimed in desperation and excitement as she stared at the Titan in front of her. Mikasa was temporarily pulled from her anger as she turned her head to look at the Titan.

"What's it doing?" Mikasa asked, looking at Armin, as if he had the answers. Jean was still writing in pain on the floor, though, wheezes coming in and out of his mouth as he could hardly notice the excess steam. He was too focused on recovering himself from that blow. Mikasa watched the Titan intently, it's chuffing noises getting more and more frequent as it seemed to increase when it looked at Jean writing in pain on the floor.

"I don't know, I've never seen a Titan do something like this before-" Armin replied, looking at the Titan in front of him. Mikasa looked at the Titan as well, and then she noticed something. The way it was moving, it's face getting redder, the chuffing and the excess amount of steam. She looked at the teeth and then realized something. Titans don't have any lungs, but they do have vocal chords. This Titan didn’t have any lips, either. It’s actions made it clear, and yet she still couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. It was so unlike any other Titan she’s seen before. She never thought that they could do this, especially a Titan that eats other Titans in incredibly brutal ways.

“Section Commander.” She started, before continuing. “It’s laughing. The Titan is laughing.” She stated simply, her eyes wide as she looked at the Titan’s chuffing motions.

“A-Are you sure...?! What’s he laughing at?!” Hange asked, her eyes wide and her heart beating faster than ever. She had never seen such a thing in all her years. It was truly an amazing sight. Armin, however, was the one to respond to Hange.

“I think it’s laughing at Jean and how he got hurt.” Armin stated, looking at Jean, who had finally started to get back up. As soon as that happened, the Titan stopped its strange chuffing behavior. Hange and the others stared in complete wonder at the sight, having never seen such a thing before.

“Oh... ohohohoho~!! I’m... this is... this is incredible! This is what I need! This is what I need to prove that Titans aren’t how we think they are, Moblit! Titans have emotions! Titans can feel joy!! We’ve done it, Moblit!!” Hange stated excitedly, laughing as she hugged Moblit tightly, her laughs were full of joy, as if she had just won against the Titans for good. But she was clearly extremely invested in this research, and Mikasa, for one, was indifferent to the research, but she’d be lying if she said that the Titan didn’t interest her. Still... she didn’t like looking at it in the eyes. Something about it felt off. However, their celebrations were interrupted by a droplet of water from the sky. One, than two, than 3 and 4. Then the rain had begun to fall.

“Hey, come on, Jean, let’s get you inside. You coming, Mikasa?” Armin asked, supporting Jean with his shoulders, and starting to walk back towards the barracks.

“Yes, I’ll be there in a second.” Mikasa replied, the rain pouring down harder and harder by the second as she stared at the Titan before her. She still couldn’t bear to look at it in the eyes. It’s primal emotions and desires felt too powerful to be looked at without her soul being penetrated by the eyes of the beast. As the rain fell upon the somber scene, Mikasa began to think. She thought about Eren, and what he would’ve done if he saw her doing this. Standing next to a Titan and not killing it. What would Eren think, if he knew that she was starting to question the nature of the Titan in front of her, and even claim that there was something special about it. That it was different. That it was more than just the monster it appeared to be. But that was insane to suggest. Mikasa knew that it was just a monster, right? It was preposterous, and hypocritical of her to suggest that the Titan in front of her was not a monster. That it was... something different. Something special. Every raindrop that fell upon the scenery that hit the Titan in front of her rose up as a small steam plume. The Titan’s immense size and immense body heat evaporating every raindrop that touched it’s skin. It stared at her. She looked back. She looked straight into those eyes. She was not going to let this beast, whatever it was, she was not going to let it see into her soul. She would face it head on. She would look at it, and she would be the one to stare at the soul of the Titan instead. She would be the one to look at this Titan and find out what it really is. Is it another monster, like the rest, or is it something else. Something more human. The thought would be laughable to Eren. Eren wasn’t here anymore, but Mikasa was, and this scarf was still here as well. Mikasa looked at the Titan in front of her and glared at it, staring into it’s large green orbs. Her entire body was soaked from the rain now, but she didn’t care. The Titan in front of her didn’t seem to care either. Mikasa huffed, and let out a soft sigh. Of course, the monster was nothing more than a monster. She saw that in it’s eyes.

Mikasa began to walk off, her scarf trailing behind her. However, she heard a deep growl come from behind her, and felt a sudden weight be removed from her neck. She could hear the creaking of the wires, the deep grumbling of the Titan. She stopped in her tracks, placing her hands up to her neck before feeling around. Her scarf was gone. As she looked behind her, the sight she saw filled her with rage. The Titan’s hand had moved. Under it’s index finger was her scarf. It had taken the remnants of Eren. The last thing of Eren she had left. With rage in her eyes, Mikasa stared back at the Titan. It’s head tilted slightly, as if it was oblivious to what it had just done. As if it was curious. But Mikasa didn’t care. She grabbed a blade from one of the nearby soldier’s ODM gear, and sliced off the Titan’s finger with a single strike, huffing loudly from rage as she yanked the scarf out from underneath the creature’s disembodied finger.

“Monster.” She spat. Her eyes filled with hatred as she stared at the Titan in front of her. It groaned and growled in pain, but Mikasa didn’t care. Those eyes told her all she needed to know. It was a beast, and nothing more. But deep down.... Mikasa knew that wasn’t true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! So, I have been thinking that I haven’t been giving Mikasa enough attention, so here is a Mikasa-centered chapter! Also, update on my updating schedule, I have decided I will update once a week. School starting up again has caused a bit of havoc and so at the moment, updating once a week is the best I can do.


	15. That Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The scouting legion wakes up to alarming news; the abnormal Titan that they had captured only a week ago has escaped! The scouting legion rushes to find the Titan before any news about the escape gets leaked out, because if it does, then the Titan they had worked so hard to get will be executed. But in the midst of the search, Armin has a personal experience with the Titan that will change his life forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The glorious return! I am so sorry that it took me a long time to update, school has been biting my ass recently, but I made sure that the return of the fic is long so I can make up for the loss of time!

A scream. Then a roar. Finally, the rumbling of the ground. Those three things in succession, woke up Section Commander Hange from her rather peaceful slumber. It wasn't a gentle wake up, either. A jolt of panic went throughout her body, as her eyes shot open and her body sat up in her bed. However, her vision was met with a blurry distortion of what it should be. Which was expected, of course. Hange's eyes squinted as she looked quickly to the side, attempting to find her glasses. Once she did, she quickly put them on over her face, her vision finally returning to a normal state; how it should be. A sigh escaped her lips as she reached under her glasses to tiredly rub her eyes, a yawn escaping her throat as she attempted to bring herself up on her feet. What time was it? She would usually be waken up by Moblit in the morning if she slept in. Actually, she couldn't see hardly any light coming through the window at all! Was she really up that early? As Hange moved herself to the window, she was suddenly interrupted by a familiar face bursting into her room, her door slamming onto the side of the wall.

Hange looked to the boy who entered. It was Moblit. He was panting, almost wheezing, his face was contorted in complete fear and anxiety. Eyes wide, sweat dripping down his forehead. He looked like he had just seen the devil himself and had lived to tell the tale. He was trying to make out words, to speak, but he was wheezing and breathing so hard that he could hardly say the words.

"Sec... sect.... sectio...!! SectiON CommAnd- SECTION COMMANDER!! The- the Ti- ti- ti- Tita-" Moblit stuttered out, wheezing heavily, to the point where he looked like he was going to collapse. His body was completely frozen in fear, continuing to stutter, unable to calm down and state the words that he was trying to say. Hange had never seen Moblit so utterly afraid in her life. Even when going up against Titans, she had never seen Moblit so terrified. She was seriously worried that he was going to hurt himself or pass out from lack of oxygen. Quickly, she hurried over to him, putting her hands on his shoulders, as an attempt to comfort, and to get him to calm down and speak rationally.

"Hey, hey, Moblit! Calm down. It's okay. Tell me what happened, slowly." Hange consoled, her eyes filled with worry as she looked at the soldier in front of her, who was practically wheezing from panic. Hange was sure the situation was serious, judging from Moblit's reaction to the whole thing. But even if it was incredibly serious, she wanted him to calm down and tell her slowly, so that he wouldn't pass out or something before telling her.

"The- the Titan! The Titan escaped!" Moblit blurted out through his panic, now being consoled by Hange, he was able to push out what he was trying to say. His face was still contorted in fear, and now Hange understood why. Her eyes widened to the size of baseballs as she stared at Moblit in pure shock.

**"WHAT?!?!"** she screamed in shock as she suddenly bolted out the door, not even bothering to get dressed in her normal clothes, or even to put on a pair of shoes. She sprinted out the door of her room, into the hallway. She didn't even care that she was running completely barefoot in her pajamas. She bursted out of the door of the base and into the Titan containment area, not even taking one singular moment to slow down. She didn't seem to care that she was stepping on rocks, nor did she seem to even notice. Tears flooded her eyes as she raced to the containment area, where she was met with a heartbreaking; and worrying sight. The containment area had been completely pulled out of the ground. All of the harpoons that were sticking into the Titans skin having been pulled out, although many were noticeably missing, meaning that the Titan still had some harpoons stuck inside of it. "MY TEST SUBJECT!!!!!" She screamed as she looked at the remnants of the test site, her hands going up to her head as she started to pull her own hair in pure stress and anger. She knew that the Titan wasn't dead, which was the good thing about this whole situation, still the fact that it was gone was upsetting enough to make Hange burst into tears. She loved the big guy! She hadn't even gotten a chance to name him yet! She couldn't lose him now! Not when he was so valuable!! Hange yelled angrily and suddenly scurried over to the soldier that was supposed to be on guard duty for the Titan. "You!! What did you do!!?? Why didn't you stop the Titan or tell anyone?! Tell me what happened!! Tell me now!!" Hange yelled as she shook the soldier furiously by the shoulders, tears and anger happening simultaneously as she shook the soldier frantically.

"S-Section commander! I swear I wasn't slacking on my duties! The Titan went to s-sleep at a normal time last night! It was relaxed! You were there, remember?!" The soldier attempted to explain the situation, but it was hard with Hange shaking him like this, not to mention how intimidating she was.

"Then what happened?! How did the Titan get loose!?" Hange asked angrily, her voice filled with desperation. She really wanted an explanation for this! She felt that she and the big guy had a bond!! How could he leave her like this, when they still had so many tests to run!!

"I don't know! It woke up earlier than usual today! It was very erratic, and started growling and making all sorts of noise! We tried using the usual methods to calm it down, or to shut it up, but it almost bit my head off!! It started attempting to bite and chew things like the dirt, and it almost caught me in it's teeth! But we knew we couldn't kill it! It got angrier and angrier until it somehow just... stood up!! It ripped out all of the harpoons and ran south! We didn't have the equipment to pursue it! I'm so sorry, Section Commander!" The soldier pleaded as he explained the situation with sweat pouring down his face. He felt so close to the jaws of death earlier, and now he was basically being threatened by the Section Commander!

Hange soon dropped the soldier and adjusted her glasses. The tears that once adorned her face were now wiped off, and that once angry and sad expression was replaced by one of intrigue and confusion.

"That is very curious indeed... the big guy must be grumpy today! Or hungry... perhaps Titans are it's food source! Titans don't need to eat, but perhaps it gets the same satisfaction and feeling that normal Titans get from eating humans when it eats Titans! It hasn't been near any Titans for about a week now... maybe it's finally gotten hungry and has gone looking for some Titans to eat! You said it was trying to chew on things, correct? That could be the answer! It was trying to find Titans!" Hange hypothesized, feeling satisfied with her explanation, that must be it! What a fascinating specimen of a Titan! Hange was about to start theorizing more, before a voice from behind caught her off-guard.

"Or maybe it just got fed up with your constant experimentation and left to get away from you." Levi's voice came from behind, causing Hange to turn around swiftly to look at him. Levi was already fully dressed in his soldier uniform after being already informed of the situation. Levi's face had a sharp glare painted upon it. He clearly wasn't in the mood to wake up to this kind of news, especially considering it was Hange's fault that the Titan was here in the first place, and now it's put a soldier's life in danger. Levi was holding a cup of tea, but from his grip on it, it was clear that he wasn't happy. He was holding it so tightly that it looked like he was going to break that handle in half. That's how you know that Levi's mad. He loves his teacups dearly and always handles them with care, so when he's about to break one, that's a sign of one extremely angry Levi.

"Levi!!! I'm sure you understand the situation!! Don't you agree that this Titan is something completely unlike anything we've ever seen before?? We can't just kill it! It may have escaped, but this is our chance to observe what it does in the wild! We've been holding it hostage all this time, but we haven't be able to observe what it does naturally without us around! This could be a perfect opportunity!!" Hange yelled excitedly, scooting up towards Levi, as if begging him to go on an expedition mission with her, to observe the Titan's natural behavior.

"Goddamnit, you're completely missing the point, four-eyes. It's a Titan on the loose. This could shut down our whole regiment if this thing kills someone, be it accidental or purposefully. We need to find it as soon as possible. We don't have time for your 'scientific observations'." Levi scoffed as he glared at Hange, before turning to Miche, who had recently entered the containment area. Ever since Miche had been assigned to this post, he had to have his nose plugged by tissues at all times. The reason, as Miche had stated, was that the stench that the abnormal radiated off of it, a 'stench of complete raw emotions' as he described it, was so sickening that he couldn't do any work without throwing up. Having their second-strongest soldier being constantly sick wasn't ideal, so blocking off his scent ability was a necessary price to pay for the safety and health of Miche himself. "Section Commander Miche, where's the commander? We need to set off a search and capture mission immediately. There's going to be panic and casualties if anyone sees this Titan. I know this area is remote, but there are villages nearby and it that thing gets far enough, this could mean the end of our entire regiment." Levi explained, looking at Miche, who's nose was still plugged by a handkerchief.

"Commander Erwin has already been informed of the news and has already set off with a squad of soldiers. They're going to inform the nearby villages to evacuate under the pretense that there have been dangerous animals sighted in the area. I believe it would be best for you, Section Commander Hange, and the new recruits to set out on the search and capture mission. Levi, I believe you should lead the search squad, while Hange handles the capture part of the operation." Miche explained as he looked at the two other soldiers. Hange looked disappointed.

"Awww, I was hoping I'd get to observe what the Titan does in it's natural habitat... but I guess it is for the best that we get it back as soon as possible." Hange sighed in slight disappointment. She really wanted to see what the Titan does when it's all alone. After all, she hardly ever gets to observe such a unique specimen like this, and the majority of the time, it's been forcibly held down. She'd like to know what it's natural behaviors are like, and what it does when not held down. But it would seem that would have to wait for another time.

"Alright, I'm going to go wake up those brats and get them ready. And, four-eyes, get into some decent clothes. Nobody wants to see you run around screaming in your pajamas all morning." Levi commented as he walked off, a slight sigh coming from his throat. He couldn't believe this. He wasn't even on board with capturing the Titan in the first place, and now the entire regiment could be compromised because of one stupid-ass monster that drools all over the place and is incredibly unsanitary and dirty all the time. He hated that thing, why did he have to capture it? He'd rather just let it die. As much as Levi understood that studying the Titan was important for humanity's sake, he didn't appreciate having it around, especially because of the ruckus that it made whenever it got 'upset' with Hange's constant experimentation with it. As Levi walked away, Hange looked down at her clothes and finally remembered that she was actually wearing her pajamas. A shade of blush went across her face as she realized this fact. She must look like a complete fool. Hange looked to Miche, who was continuing to stand next to the door.

"I would also suggest that you get into your uniform quickly, Section Commander Hange. The capture teams have already started to prep the capture guns, and we are going to be moving out shortly. We don't exactly know the location of the Titan, but with the footprints it leaves behind because of it's large size, we should be able to find it rather quickly. The only problem is that we need to find it before it manages to reach a village." Miche explained, a hand going on his chin as he went into thought. The Titan's actions certainly were strange, it had never gone into a state of anger like this before. Then again, they have only had it for about a week. Who knows what kinds of behaviors it has yet to show?

"I agree, but what's perplexed me is the big guy's sudden outburst. He's never shown aggression like this before, not even when I poked him with swords or when I tried to force feed him certain types of human food. He would seemingly only get mildly annoyed with it, but never angry. Never like this. The soldiers even reported that he tried biting them. I wonder what has caused this sudden outburst of anger? I would love to know, but it would seem that he isn't telling. Perhaps when we find him we will find out? But one thing is for certain; the military police and the government cannot be allowed to know about his escape. If they do, then they'll surely force us to execute him. We have only had him for a week, and yet have learned so much about his behavior in that time. If we were to kill him now, it would be a complete waste of resources and information." Hange explained. Miche nodded in response. It would be a waste to kill it now, especially when it's behavior is so abnormal and peculiar. "Well, I should get dressed now. I'll see you around, Miche." Hange stated as she started to walk off, towards her quarters. She had to get dressed quickly. After all, they needed to get going as quickly as possible, and putting on ODM gear on top of putting on the normal soldier uniform was rather time consuming, and right now, they were very short on time.

Meanwhile, a certain blonde 15-year old was in another part of the base. 'Snap... Snap... Click!' The sound of the buckling of belts and the shifting of fabric were echoing all over the barracks. Earlier today, the cadets had been informed of an incredibly dire situation; the Titan that had been kept on the grounds in the containment area has escaped. This was a complete shock to most, since the majority of the new recruits had not even been informed of the Titan's presence on the base. Only those who have worked with Section Commander Hange personally, like Armin, Jean, and Mikasa, knew of the Titan's presence. It was a wonder that no one noticed though, because that Titan always made a lot of noise whenever Hange was conducting experiments. Especially those that involved it being in pain. It would growl and grunt really loudly. The cadets would always complain about the noise, but the majority of the scouts brushed it off and said that there were a lot of bears and other aggressive animals around the area. Armin never understood why the scouts didn't just admit there was a Titan on the base grounds. Perhaps it was to reduce anxiety? After all, not many who have seen the horrors of Trost and other people getting eaten by the Titans would be very comfortable sleeping in a place that has a Titan held captive. As Armin worked to get his uniform on, he heard a familiar voice start to talk while getting changed, breaking the silence in the room.

"I don't get it, why didn't the Scouts tell us that there was a damn Titan here? Isn't that dangerous?" Connie asked, scratching his head in a perplexing motion as he wondered why exactly there was a Titan on the base grounds.

"Hell if I know. I'm just as confused as you are, Connie. But apparently it's a big one. It's gotta be 10 meters at the least from what they told us." Reiner replied, grumbling in a bit of a frustrated tone. Reiner couldn't believe that they just kept a Titan here. Especially one so large. That Titan could wake up during the night while they were sleeping and could've crushed them all, and they wouldn't even know. It's a scary thought to be sure. Reiner, internally, knew that there was no saving him if that titan decided to attack while they were asleep. He had to be awake to use any kind of Titan ability. But even then, using a Titan ability in general would mean that they would have to abandon the scouts, and could no longer search for the founder in peace. They didn't even know where to look. That was still a huge problem. If they didn't find it in time, then they might even have to return home empty-handed. It would surely lead to their deaths. They already lost the Jaw. Returning empty-handed, with no information to provide would mean that they achieved nothing. And then there was still the case of Eren. Reiner hadn't forgotten about Eren, even after a year with him being missing. He doesn't know why he can't just forget that kid. Eren is just another island devil. Right? He's just another devil that this island has produced. But even now, he still remembers Eren's determination. His words. How Eren wanted to be just like him, and how Eren wanted to be as strong as he was. Reiner wasn't sure if Eren was even right. Was he strong? Sometimes, he didn't feel strong. He knows that he shouldn't sympathize with these devils. He shouldn't forget that they are enemies, nothing more. But deep down, as much as Reiner wanted to deny it, he enjoyed his time here. He liked his friends. He appreciated Jean, Connie, Ymir, Krista, Mikasa, Armin, and Sasha. They had gone through thick and thin together. He still, deep down, missed Marco, despite his warrior side knowing full well that he was responsible for the death of Marco. He missed Eren. He wished Eren was still here, despite his warrior side denying those feelings. Eren Yeager... what a unique kid. He couldn't forget someone like him. Never in his life would he be able to forget... Yeager... where has he heard that name before? Yeager... Yeager... the answer is in the back of his head. On the tip of his tongue. He knows it, and yet somehow he can't remember. Why can't he remember who else had the last name Yeager? _'Wait a minute...'_ Reiner's thoughts were about to finally get the answer that he had been wondering for years, but it was soon interrupted by another statement from Connie, turning his attention to Connie and away from his thoughts.

"How the hell did they keep something like that so hidden? It's gotta be huge, so why did none of us know about it?" Connie asked in confusion as he continued to scratch his head. He couldn't wrap his head around it. Why had they never seen it before? Did they even know what it looked like? The scouts, despite saying that they were going on a search mission, didn't even give them any information about what the Titan they had captured looked like. Connie had almost completely forgotten about the Titan in Trost, but he remembers it faintly. But he didn't think that the Titan they were keeping here was that Titan, right? Couldn't be. It's probably just some other Titan.

"Hey, come to think of it, Jean, didn't you go and help Section Commander Hange with her experiments the other day? That Titan is what you were experimenting on, right?" Reiner asked, looking over at Jean, who was still fastening the many belts and buckles on his pants. Putting on these soldier uniforms was very tedious and took a lot of time. He wishes they weren't so complex. Jean had been pulled away from his thoughts to look over at Reiner. He was somewhat shocked, they didn't know about the Titan before 20 minutes ago?

"You mean they didn't tell you about it? The Titan they're keeping here is the same one from Trost; the 15 meter one that plugged up the hole." Jean stated casually, tilting his head slightly. Jean didn't actually like thinking about that Titan that much. He found it disturbing. The way it looked at him. Reminded him too much of a certain angry kid that he could never forget. It didn't help that the thing had the same hair and eye color as Eren, either. The way it acted, too. It was so aggressive whenever it saw Titans. Ugh, he just wishes he could forget the thing altogether. The similarities of that thing's actions and how Eren acted were honestly scary. But comparing Eren to the thing he hated most was a pretty rude thing to think about, so maybe, just this once, he could honor Eren's memory by not comparing him to some dirty-ass Titan.

"Holy shit. They had the technology to catch that thing?" Bertholdt suddenly interjected into the conversation. His eyes wide as he looked at Jean, and then at Reiner and Connie. Bertholdt didn't think Paradis had the technology avaliable to actually catch a Titan; let alone a 15 meter one that seemed extremely aggressive. Armin soon also entered the conversation with his own input on the situation.

"Yes, Titan capturing technology has existed for years, but the scouting legion hasn't used it since the previous test subjects were murdered by an unknown assailant. However this is the first time it has been used to capture a Titan of this size, let alone an abnormal one. It's a groundbreaking breakthrough for the study of Titans, but the fact that this one escaped is troubling, and shows that the technology is far from perfect." Armin explained, finally finishing up the belts on his uniform, before starting to equip his ODM gear and the gas tanks that goes along with it. Armin sighed slightly as he looked down at the ODM gear. He was really interested in that Titan, despite it being very creepy to him and being uncomfortable with it being so close to him. He wanted to know why it looked at him like that. Hopefully he wouldn't have to kill it.

"You were there too, right Armin? What was the Titan like?" Reiner asked, looking at Armin as he asked the question of the Titan's behavior. It was honestly a strange thing. The way that the Titan acted, that is.

"Well... I'd say that it was much less active than it was at Trost, but that's somewhat of a given considering it was being forcefully strapped down. It didn't actually do that much. It just... stared at us and occasionally made some weird growling noises. It kept looking at me specifically, though. I wonder why... well, anyways, the Titan didn't really do anything until one of the experiments where Section Commander Hange made Mikasa and Jean start up a fake fight, to see how the Titan would react. But Jean actually ended up getting hurt and fell onto the ground. After that, the Titan just... started making these weird noises. They weren't normal Titan noises, either. It was making this kind of 'chuffing' noise, where steam was blowing out of it's teeth. Eventually, Mikasa pointed out that it looked like laughing. That's the working theory of what it was doing anyways, we think it was laughing at Jean because he got hurt. But, once again this is just a theory of what it was doing. Still, I've never seen a Titan do anything like that before..." Armin explained, before starting to be lost in thought. In the meantime of his thinking, though, Jean commented on Armin's story.

"If he really was laughing, that big ugly asshole has a sick sense of humor. If he were a human I would've punched him in the face already for doing that shit." Jean scoffed, crossing his arms as he stood at the entrance to the room. He was already done with his gear and uniform, however he was waiting on the others to finish before he went out there and headed off on the search and capture mission.

"Pfffft, I don't know Jean, maybe you should consider it an accomplishment!" Connie snickered, his face red from holding in his laughter.

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Jean replied, his voice getting aggravated.

"Well, I mean, if you're the first person to make a Titan laugh, then maybe that's a good thing!" Connie snickered again, and then started laughing, unable to hold in his laughter anymore. Jean's face got significantly more aggravated and angry as he looked at Connie. Right as he was about to continue the fight, however, Reiner stepped in between them.

"Come on, we need to get going. Everyone's done now. If we don't go now, Captain Levi's gonna make us clean the entire base for a week." Reiner commented, attempting to reason with both of them and make them stop fighting, while also getting both of them to move so they wouldn't get in trouble. Surprisingly, both of them nodded, and although they exchanged a brief glare, they moved out of the room. Armin and Bertholdt soon following behind them as they all exited the male barracks. Armin couldn't help but be a bit worried about the whole situation, after all, that whole thing with the Titan attempting to bite someone, apparently. He wondered if the Titan had reverted back to normal Titan instincts and now wanted to eat humans. That would be very bad, especially considering how powerful this Titan is. As Armin and the others reached the yard, they equipped their ODM gear and stood in a neat, horizontal line, saluting.

"Took you long enough." A familiar voice came from the side. Armin and the others looked to the side to see the man that the voice was coming from. It was none other than Captain Levi. But anyone could tell who was speaking simply from his voice. It was a very recognizable and noticeable voice, especially if you worked under the captain himself. "Alright brats, I'm sure you've all heard that we've got a Titan on the loose. Your job is a search and capture mission. I am going to be leading the charge, but when we get to the forest we are going to be splitting up individually. If you see the Titan, we have equipped you with a purple flare to shoot off and alert the rest of the troop. But you aren't allowed to kill the Titan unless it is putting another human being's life in danger, got it? And another thing, don't let this thing reach the nearby villages. We can't let word get out about the Titan getting loose." Levi explained, his normal monotone and somewhat condescending voice ringing into the ears of all of the new recruits that were standing in front of him. "Alright, this is you brats's chance to show the survey corps what you're made of. And remember, don't chicken out." Levi commented, before swiftly turning around and latching his ODM gear onto a nearby tree, then moving to one of the other trees, and then another. The new recruits looked at each other for a moment, before swiftly following after Captain Levi, and following his instructions. As Armin reached the forest, he waved a goodbye motion to Jean, who was previously right next to him, and moved out on his own way. The air hitting his face as he swiftly dodged through trees and branches.

Eren, in the meantime, had been walking throughout the large forest of trees that surrounded the scouting base. He had finally gotten away from that strange little one, and all the other little ones! Although he did like the little ones, the pointy sharp things that they stuck into him to keep him down hurt a lot. A deep, searing pain filled his stomach. He was so hungry. He needed something, anything. It was like there were a bunch of tiny little sharp things sticking into his stomach at the same time. He didn't like it, not at all. But he didn't see any big ones around! He needed to just... eat some big ones. That's all he needed. That's what the voices told him to do, after all, so he had to leave. He felt very mad and very hungry when he woke up from sleepy dark dark time, and the little ones got too close! He didn't mean to try and bite one of them, but he was just so hungry that he couldn't help it. Something in the back of his mind told him to just eat the little ones, and he would be okay, but no! He wouldn't eat the little ones! That's what the big ones do, and he is not a big one! He hates the big ones. He isn't a big one. He will never stoop to the level of the big ones, if that was even possible. The big ones were so evil, so despicable. He couldn't even fathom how awful they were. Eren's ear twitched as he noticed a smaller stick on one of the big brown sticks that came up from the ground. He was still so hungry, and it didn't look like there were any big ones around. Which was strange, there were always big ones around! Why weren't there any?! Eren felt like he was going to lose it if he didn't eat anything. But that's when he got an idea.

Opening his mouth wide, Eren clamped his jaw down onto the branch of the big brown stick that comes up from the ground. Then, he started to pull. He pulled and he pulled until the big branch was torn off. That felt better. It did not soothe the pain in his stomach, but it did soothe the mental aspect and need. He started to grind his teeth on the branch, and chew. He didn't do it too hard, not to the point where it would break, but to the point where it was enough to satisfy him. Chewing on the bark of the branch was soothing. He liked this. It was almost as good as chewing on the big ones. But he still thought chewing on the big ones felt better. Eren's eyes were now half-lidded as he started to relax, the crunching of the branch and the grinding of his teeth were the only noises he was making, besides the slight growls of satisfaction. Eren's pointed ears soon perked up as he heard a 'sssshhhhiiing' sound. There were a lot of that kind of sounds. He remembers those tiny string things that the little ones use to stick onto things. They sounded like that. He also heard a 'fssshhh' sound that went along with it. One of them was getting pretty close. Eren opened his mouth, dropping the branch on the ground with a loud _**'THUMP!'**_ The sound rumbled throughout the forest, most likely giving his location, but he didn't care. In fact, he didn't even know that the little ones were looking for it. He had been too focused on his chewing sensation and the need to sate his burning hunger. As Eren looked down, he soon noticed that a familiar little one, yellow hair little one, who had been flying through the air, suddenly fell in mid-air. A large _**'SNAP'**_ sound coming from the small string things that let the little ones glide through the air. As Eren looked down, he looked at yellow hair little one. What was yellow hair little one doing here?

"Damnit! Damnit!!" Armin yelled as he fell onto the ground. He hadn't even noticed the Titan behind him. He had run out of gas. How did he run out this quickly?! Did he forget to refill his gas!? Oh god, of course he did. Now he was stuck out here, with a Titan on the loose, without gas, and-

A loud huffing sound from behind caused Armin's eyes to suddenly widen to the size of baseballs. The huffing continued. It was heavy breathing. He knew what that was. He knew that he had found the Titan that they were looking for. But he had fell right into it's lair. Defenseless, out of gas, and with no one around to help, Armin was sure that this was where he was going to die. After all, the Titan was very temperamental earlier, according to the reports. Who's to say it wouldn't try and eat him right here and now? Armin turned around slowly, to see the legs and barely visible face of the Titan. Glowing green eyes stared down at him. With sweat dripping down his forehead and breathing hurried to the point where he was almost hyperventilating, Armin quickly reached to grab the flare gun that he had been instructed to fire should he find the Titan. With his sweaty palms, he moved to grab the flare gun and the flare shell. Unfortunately, because his hands were so sweaty due to anxiety, the flare capsule fumbled out of his hands, right under where the Titan just took another step. The purple smoke poured out from under the Titan's foot, followed by another _**'THUMP'**_ sound. "H-hey there..." Armin stated, his voice slightly shaky. To his surprise, he expected to be grabbed, but instead, the Titan seemed to lower itself onto the ground, looking down at the human below him. The Titan was sitting almost like a school delinquent. It looked down at the human beneath him, glowing green eyes like two portals into another realm.

"How are you doing...?" Armin asked with fear in his eyes, to which he got no reply. Expected. Why wasn't the Titan killing him? He was right here. He was defenseless. Come to think of it... why was he even talking to the Titan in the first place? It was a Titan, of course it wouldn't answer. The Titan started to look to the left, as it's ears seemed to twitch a bit, trying to pick up the sounds that were coming closer. "Why am I even talking to you? You're not going to answer... god... what would Eren think if he saw me like this? Talking to a Titan..." Armin stated to himself. It was rather loud, but he didn't expect the Titan to care. It was a Titan, after all. However, Armin noticed something extremely peculiar. When he was talking to himself, the second he said Eren, the Titan quickly looked back to him. It's eyes stared down at him, as if he had said something that the Titan knew. Something that caused the Titan's reaction. Why... why did it react to that word? Actually, he technically doesn't know what word it reacted to, but it looked over to him quickly the minute he said Eren. Did the Titan know something? No... of course not. It couldn't have. It was a Titan.

"You're just seeing things, Armin. The Titan just happened to look over to you when you said that name. Everything's gone off the rocker since Eren left, and now you're finally seeing things-" Armin stated to himself as he looked straight up at the Titan, and his eyes seemed to widen even larger after he saw the Titan's reaction to the name 'Eren' again. Once he said the name 'Eren', the titan tilted it's head inquisitively, looking down at Armin. Why... why is it doing that?! Why is it reacting to the name 'Eren' again?!

The Titan slowly, but surely, stuck his finger out and moved his hand close to Armin. Armin, who was frozen in shock all the while, looked at the large finger in front of him. Why did it know that name. Why was it doing this? He felt a feeling of fear rise up in his bones, almost frozen in place at the sight of the Titan, and what it had just done. But, Armin gathered up his courage, and slowly, he put his hand on top of the fingernail of the Titan, his hand barely big enough to even cover 1/3 of the nail.

“W-Why do you know that name...? Why did you do that when I said the name Eren?? What do you know about him?! Why are you doing this?!” Armin started to yell, tears pricking at the end of his eyes as the emotions started to rush over his body and senses. The thought of Eren caused Armin’s body to become instantly more emotional. “What am I to you? What do you want with me...?” Armin started to whisper, putting his free hand over his mouth as his eyes started to tear up. He continued to stare at the Titan, who was now hunching it’s back down to be on it’s hands and knees. It leaned its head down to look at Armin. Those big, green eyes made Armin look away. He didn’t want to see it.. he didn’t want to see them. They were too familiar to him, and that felt wrong. He didn’t want to acknowledge the possibility. It was surely wrong. It was an insult to his memory, to even think of that being a possibility. He can’t think like that. It’s a coincidence... it has to be.

Suddenly, the swinging of ODM gear and a sudden pained growl from the Titan was enough to snap Armin back to reality. When he opened his eyes, he noticed that instead of being on the ground, he was on the branch of a tree, being held in Mikasa’s arms as she had swiftly grabbed him to give him an escape from the situation.

“Armin! You aren’t hurt, are you?” She asked, but Armin was unable to give a reply. He looked down at the Titan, who was now being restrained on the ground, covered with harpoons once again and growling and screaming in pain. He could almost feel the Titan’s pain. He looked at Section Commander Hange, who was continuing to fawn over the Titan as if nothing had happened. They didn’t know what Armin had seen. Captain Levi, standing on top of the Titans head and swiftly stabbing it in the eye as a punishment. They knew nothing of what had just happened. What Armin had witnessed. As the cart to hold the Titan had finally started to wheel in, Armin couldn’t say a single word. As Mikasa continued to question him, he couldn’t even pay any mind to it. All he was looking at was that Titan. What had it just done? And what had he just seen? He wanted to know, but Armin was afraid that if he found out, it would change his life forever.


End file.
